Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/289

 Ch.Xir.Pt.I. Sec.L] Ea;tents. 269 statute 33 Hen. 8. should be found by the inquisition; and should it seems be stated and explained therein with some degree of legal form and certainty (a). The inquisition, being an office not of infor^mation but of entitling (6), is bad if argu- mentative, or if it be not direct and positive, so that no certain traverse can be taken on it (c) ; as where the inquisition stated that a' manor was holden, &c. " ^5 it appeareth hy^ &c. (c?)," and facts, not evidence, should be found {e The inquisition may however find a particular estate, A^-ithout tracing its origin, so that the precision of a plea is not necessary in these cases {f And on the rule utile per inutile non vitiatur, if the necessary facts be properly stated, the finding of a mere matter of law, may be rejected as surplusage (g). As the inquisition is engrafted on, , and becomes part of the record, it may for defects of this na- - ture on the face of it, be demurred to, or set aside on motion to the Court. Where a part of the debt on which the inqui- sition is founded is invalid, the inquisition may be set aside pro tanto only (Ji). And the quashing an inquisition will not it seems preclude the Crown from taking an inquisition on a new writ of extent of the teste of that quashed [i). With respect to the nature of the debts to be found under < the inquisition, the general criterion seems to be whether the ' demand is of. such a nature that an action might be maintained ' against the debtor, were the debt due to a subject (^). It being now held that an action is sustainable for monies which lie in account, and though there be complicated cross accounts (Z), it seems that such monies may be found, as debts under the inquisition. So that the antient Crown proceeding by a distringas ad computandum, on the finding of the jury, is disused (tw). (a) West, ch. 3. 3 Price, 269. (g) 2 Manning, 535. Com. Diij. (A) Sec ante, this ch. Pleader, S. 28. (c) See 3 Price, 269, 274. (h) 1 Anstr. 192. Hughes, 178. (rf) 13 Co. 72. Inquisition set aside (?) 3 Price, 464. A new writ neces- for not saying in what county taken; sary, if former returned. Ibid. 269. for saying divcrsa messitagin^ without {k) 2 Manning, 525, 6. naming them ; for not stating in what (/) See 5 Taunton, 431. county lands lie. Jones lER Memoran- (m) 1 Manning, Pr. 527, 530, 541. rfrt, tit. Inqiiisitio. West, 2G, 33. Whether the defendant (e) 3 Price, 269. can have credit given him depends on (/) 2 Manning, 535, notes (c) and the right to set off against the Crown, (d). as to which see post, ch. 13, s. 3. div. 3. With