THE

MAXIMS OF THE LAW.

REGULA I.

In jure non remota causa, sed proxima spectatur. Ir were infinite for the law to judge the causes of causes, and their impulsions one of another; therefore it contenteth itself with the immediate cause, and judgeth of acts by that, without looking to any further degree.

As if an annuity be granted pro consilio impenso et im- 6 H. 8 Dy. pendendo, and the grantee commit treason, whereby he is fo. 1. et 2. imprisoned, so that the grantor cannot have access unto him for his counsel; yet, nevertheless, the annuity is not determined by this non-feasance; yet it was the grantee's act and default to commit the treason, whereby the imprisonment grew but the law looketh not so far, but excuseth him, because the not giving counsel was compulsory, and not voluntary, in regard of the imprisonment.

Discont.

2 H. 4. 3.

So if a parson make a lease, and be deprived, or resign, Litt. cap. the successors shall avoid the lease; and the cause of yet deprivation, and more strongly of a resignation, moved from 26 H. 8. 2. the party himself: but the law regardeth not that, because the admission of the new incumbent is the act of the ordinary.

So if I be seised of an advowson in gross, and a usurpation be had against me, and at the next avoidance I usurp arere, I shall be remitted: and yet the presentation, which is the act remote, is mine own act; but the admission of my clerk, whereby the inheritance is reduced to me, is the act of the ordinary.

VOL. XIII.

L

5 H. 7. 25.

12 H. 4. 4 H. 8. Dy. f. 1.

M. 40 et 41.
El. Julius
Winning-
ton's case, or

So if I covenant with I. S. a stranger, in consideration of natural love to my son, to stand seised to the use of the said I. S. to the intent he shall enfeoff my son; by this no use ariseth to I. S. because the law doth respect that there is no immediate consideration between me and I. S.

So if I be bound to enter into a statute before the mayor of the staple at such a day, for the security of one hundred pounds, and the obligee, before the day, accept of me a lease of a house in satisfaction; this is no plea in debt upon my obligation: and yet the end of that statute was but security of money; but because the entering into this statute itself, which is the immediate act whereto I am bound, is a corporal act which lieth not in satisfaction, therefore the law taketh no consideration that the remote intent was for money.

So if I make a feoffment in fee, upon condition that the feoffee shall enfeoff over, and the feoffee be disseised, and a descent cast, and then the feoffee bind himself in a stareport per le tute, which statute is discharged before the recovery of tres reverend the land: this is no breach of the condition, because the Judgel, e Sur Coke, lib. 2. land was never liable to the statute, and the possibility that it should be liable upon the recovery the law doth

37 R.

not respect.

So if I enfeoff two, upon condition to enfeoff, and one of them take a wife, the condition is not broken; and yet there is a remote possibility that the joint-tenant may die,

and then the feme is intitled to dower.

So if a man purchase land in fee-simple, and die without issue; in the first degree the law respecteth dignity of sex, and not proximity; and therefore the remote heir, on the part of the father, shall have it before the near heir on the part of the mother: but, in any degree paramount the first the law respecteth not, and therefore the near heir by the grandmother, on the part of the father, shall have it, before the remote heir of the grandfather on the part of the father.

This rule faileth in covinous acts, which though they be conveyed through many degrees and reaches, yet the law taketh heed to the corrupt beginning, and counteth all as one entire act.

As if a feoffment be made of lands held by knight's serDacre's case, vice to I. S. upon condition that he, within a certain time, shall enfeoff I. D. which feoffment to I. D. shall be to the use of the wife of the first feoffer for her jointure, &c.; this

obiter.

feoffment is within the statute of 32 H. VIII. nam dolus circuitu non purgatur.

case de Stoel.

In like manner this rule holdeth not in criminal acts, except they have a full interruption; because when the intention is matter of substance, and that which the law doth principally behold, there the first motive will be principally regarded, and not the last impulsion. As if I. S. Op. Cattelyn of malice prepense discharge a pistol at I. D. and miss et autres in him, whereupon he throws down his pistol and flies, and I. D. pursueth him to kill him, whereupon he turneth and killeth I. D. with a dagger; if the law should consider the last impulsive cause, it should say that it was in his own defence: but the law is otherwise, for it is but a pursuance and execution of the first murderous intent.

But if I. S. had fallen down, his dagger drawn, and I. D. 44 Ed. 3. had fallen by haste upon his dagger, there I. D. had been felo de se, and I. S. shall go quit.

Also you may not confound the act with the execution. of the act; nor the entire act with the last part, or the consummation of the act.

For if a disseisor enter into religion, the immediate Lit. cap. de cause is from the party, though the descent be cast in discent. law; but the law doth but execute the act which the party procureth, and therefore the descent shall not bind, et sic è

converso.

If a lease for years be made rendering a rent, and the lessee 21 Eliz. make a feoffment of part, and the lessor enter, the immediate cause is from the law in respect of the forfeiture, 24H.8.fo.4. though the entry be the act of the party; but that is but Dy. 21 R. the pursuance and putting in execution of the title which

the law giveth: and therefore the rent or condition shall

be apportioned.

So in the binding of a right by a descent, you are to consider the whole time from the disseisin to the descent cast; and if, at all times, the person be not privileged, the descent binds.

M. Dr 143.

And, therefore, if a feme covert be disseised, and the 9 H. 7. 24. baron dieth, and she taketh a new husband, and then the 3 et 4 P. et descent is cast or if a man that is not infra quatuor maria, be disseised, and return into England, and go over sea again, and then a descent is cast, this descent bindeth; because of the interim when the persons might have entered; and the law respecteth not the state of the person at the

4 et 5 P. et

last time of the descent cast, but a continuance from the very disseised to the descent."

So if baron and feme be, and they join in a feoffment of M. Dv. 159. the wife's land rendering a rent, and the baron die, and the feme take a new husband before any rent-day, and he accepteth the rent, the feoffment is affirmed for ever.

50 E. 3.

7 H. 4. 39.

REGULA II.

Non potest adduci exceptio ejusdem rei, cujus petitur
dissolutio.

IT were impertinent and contrary in itself, for the law to
allow of a plea in bar of such matter as is to be defeated
by the same suit; for it is included: otherwise a man
should never come to the end and effect of his suit, but be
cut off in the way.

And, therefore, if tenant in tail of a manor, whereunto a villain is regardant, discontinue and die, and the right of the entail descend unto the villain himself, who brings formedon, and the discontinuee pleadeth villanage; this is no plea, because the divesting of the manor, which is the intent of the suit, doth include this plea, because it determineth the villanage.

So if tenant in ancient demesne be disseised by the lord, whereby the seigniory is suspended, and the disseisee bring his assize in the court of the lord, frank fee is no plea, because the suit is brought to undo the disseisin, and so to revive the seigniory in ancient demesne.

So if a man be attainted and executed, and the heir 7 H. 6. 44. bring error upon the attainder, and corruption of blood by the same attainder be pleaded, to interrupt his conveying in the same writ of error; this is no plea, for then he were without remedy ever to reverse the attainder.

38 Ed. 3. 32.

So if tenant in tail discontinue for life rendering rent, and the issue brings formedon, and the warranty of his ancestor with assets is pleaded against him, and the assets is layed to be no other but his reversion with the rent; this is no plea, because the formedon, which is brought to undo this discontinuance, doth inclusively undo this new reversion in fee, with the rent thereunto annexed.

But whether this rule may take place where the matter of the plea is not to be avoided in the same suit, but another suit, is doubtful; and I rather take the law to be, that this rule doth extend to such cases; for otherwise the party were at a mischief, in respect the exceptions

and bars might be pleaded cross, either of them, in the contrary suit; and so the party altogether prevented and intercepted to come by his right.

So if a man be attainted by two several attainders, and there is error in them both, there is no reason but there should be a remedy open for the heir to reverse those attainders being erroneous, as well if they be twenty as one.

And, therefore, if in a writ of error brought by the heir of one of them, the attainder should be a plea peremptorily; and so again, if in error brought of that other, the former should be a plea; these were to exclude him utterly of his right: and therefore it shall be a good replication to say, that he hath a writ of error depending of that also, and so the court shall proceed: but no judgment shall be given till both pleas be discussed; and if either plea be found without error, there shall be no reversal either of the one or of the other; and if he discontinue either writ, then shall it be no longer a plea; and so of several outlawries in a personal action.

And this seemeth to me more reasonable, than that generally an outlawry or an attainder should be no plea in a writ of error brought upon a diverse outlawry or attainder, as 7 H. IV. and 7. H. VI. seem to hold; for that is a remedy too large for the mischief; for there is no reason but if any of the outlawries or attainders be indeed without error, but it should be a peremptory plea to the person in a writ of error, as well as in any other action.

But if a man levy a fine sur conusaunce de droit come ceo que il ad de son done, and suffer a recovery of the same lands, and there be error in them both, he cannot bring error first of the fine, because, by the recovery, his title of error is discharged and released in law inclusive but he must begin with the error upon the recovery, which he 37 R. may do, because a fine executed barreth no titles that accrue de puisne tems after the fine levied, and so restore himself to his title of error upon the fine: but so it is not in the former case of the attainder; for a writ of error to a former attainder is not given away by a second, except it be by express words of an act of parliament, but only it remaineth a plea to his person while he liveth, and to the conveyance of his heir after his death.

But if a man levy a fine where he hath nothing in the land, which inureth by way of conclusion only, and is executory against all purchases and new titles which shall grow to the conusor afterwards, and he purchase the land,