The Attaint

The assize of novel disseisinoriginally lay against the disseisor in possession in favor of the disseisee, and was soon extended to the heir of -the disseisee, but not against the heir or grantee of the disseisor. But the disseisor might be dead or might have conveyed the land, and in such a case the disseisee would be driven to the writ of right with iis delays and chance of battle. But the cases where the defendant had come into possession under a lawful title which was limited in time and had ceased to exist, i.. e., cases where there was no disseisin except constructive but an unlawful retention of possession were also wholly unprovided for. The judges and their clerks were busy remedying these defects, and they invented what came to be called writs of entry. They were given to the claimant out of possession, and like the assize, the writ defined tie issue. The writs, without noticing the Quibis, were of two kinds: (i) where the seisin of defendant in possession originated lawfully, as in cases of discontinuance and deforcement, and (2) where his seisin originated unlawfully as in cases of abatement, intrusion and disseisin. All the writs defined the issue by saying that the defendant in possession “has not entry except through” (non habet ingressum nisi per) a certain person and then stated the defect in the title.