Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) EditionReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) Edition
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
20. He who recovers debt or damages in the King's court when the person
charged is not in custody, may within a year after the judgment take the
body of the defendant, and commit him to prison until he has paid the
debt and damages.
21. If the demandant or plaintiff, hanging his writ (writ pending in
court), will enter into the thing demanded, his writ shall abate.
22. By the alienation of the tenant, hanging the writ, or his entry into
religion, or if he is made a knight, or she is a woman and takes a
husband hanging the writ, the writ shall not abate.
23. The king may disseise no man and no man may disseise the king, nor
pull any reversion or remainder out of him.
- Judicial Procedure -
The prohibition against maintenance was given penalties in 1406 of
100s. per person for a knight or lower giving livery of cloth or hats,
and of 40s. for the receiver of such. A person who brought such suit to
court was to be given half the penalty. The Justices of Assize and
King's Bench were authorized to inquire about such practices. The
statute explicitly included ladies and any writing, oath, or promise as
well as indenture. Excepted were guilds, fraternities, and craftsmen of
cities and boroughs which were founded on a good purpose; universities;
the mayor and sheriffs of London; and also lords, knights, and esquires
in time of war. A penalty of one year in prison without bail was given.
In 1468, there was a penalty of 100s. per livery to the giver of such,
100s. per month to the retainer or taker of such, and 100s. per month to
the person retained. Still this law was seldom obeyed.
People took grievances outside the confines of the rigid common law to
the Chancellor, who could give equitable remedies under authority of a
statute of 1285 (described in Chapter 8). The Chancery heard many cases
of breach of faith in the "use", a form of trust in which three parties
were involved: the holder of land, feofees to whom the holder had made
it over by conveyance or "bargain and sale", and the beneficiary or
receiver of the profits of the land, who was often the holder, his
children, relatives, friends, an institution, or a corporation. This
system of using land had been created by the friars to get around the
prohibition against holding property. Lords and gentry quickly adopted
it. The advantages of the use were that 1) there was no legal
restriction to will away the beneficial interest of the use although the
land itself could not be conveyed by will; 2) it was hard for the king
to collect feudal incidents because the feoffees were often unknown 3)
the original holder was protected from forfeiture of his land in case of
conviction of treason if the Crown went to someone he had not supported.
Chancery gave a remedy for dishonest or defaulting feofees.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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