CUSTUMAL: CAPITULUM 14

In case of a writ to replevy goods and chattels, the seizer of the same is to provide the bailiffs with sufficient pledges for their return [to the individual from whom they were seized] if the court judges that to be right. The defence of the seizer may then be heard. If both parties are peers of the city, the case may be argued at the weekly session. If the party from whom the goods have been seized is a foreigner and the claimant a peer, the case is to proceed on a daily basis if the claimant acted without a writ, or a weekly basis if he had a writ. The seizer is to be distrained three times (if necessary) to answer in court, each distraint being of more valuable items than the previous; at the third distraint, he is to be warned to appear in court by the sergeants (who are to advise the bailiffs that the warning has been issued). If he continues to refuse to answer for the seizure, the items from the first two distraints are to be appraised by reliable men, in full court, and forfeited to the king. Distraints are to continue daily on whatever goods he has in the city, until he is prepared to answer in court. The same procedure applies in pleas of debt and trespass. Equal justice is to be done to every person, lesser or greater, without regard to any man's status and without any favouritism. In these pleas the bailiffs may receive [to be heard] attorneys of the plaintiff and defendant, once they have attached themselves to pursue, or defend against, the accusation.

[Replevin involved the plaintiff seizing goods which he claimed the defendant had wrongfully taken from him (e.g. as a distraint), and then giving security to the authorities to guarantee that he would pursue the issue in court and would return the goods he had seized if the court decided against him.]