WUUs: Anglo-American Law 
79 
trespass de ejectione firmae by which he could recover pos- 
session of land as well as damages, so that it had the same 
effect as a real action. It is interesting to note that this ac- 
tion later developed into the action of ejectment, a mixed ac- 
tion, which became available for freeholders as well as lease- 
holders, and supplanted all of the real actions. To be com- 
pared with real actions there were certain personal actions, 
including debt, detinue, trespass vi et armis , deceit, account, 
and covenant. Debt and detinue were available before the 
time of Glanville (Henry II) ; covenant and deceit were avail- 
able before the time of Henry III; and trespass and account 
during the time of Henry III. Debt and detinue were at first 
one and the same action. Debt would lie for a stated sum of 
money due by the defendant to the plaintiff as his property, 
and detinue for a chattel thus owed. At first the difference 
between actions ex contractu and ex delicto was not strongly 
marked, but of course debt was really an action of contract 
and detinue an action of tort, and this distinction was recog- 
nized at least as early as the time of Bracton (Henry III), 
and the action of debt was separated from the action of 
detinue. Covenant was a contract action. Account was 
really an action of quasi-contract. Covenant lay to enforce 
a promise under seal. Account lay to enforce obligations im- 
posed by law upon bailiffs, guardians, and receivers. Tres- 
pass was the remedy for a multitude of wrongs of all sorts, 
such as trespass quare clausum fregit (land), trespass de 
bonis asportatis (goods), and trespass to person (battery, 
false imprisonment). In all of these actions, except detinue, 
the remedies were not restorative but compensatory. The 
plaintiff, if he recovered, recovered damages. 
Courts. In considering the legal redress afforded by the 
Normans and first Plantagenets, we should first consider the 
courts of their times.. William the Conqueror undertook to 
centralize the administration of justice. He left the Anglo- 
Saxon local courts standing, nominally without curtailment 
of their powers. But he established a Curia Regis, or coun- 
cil, in place of the Anglo-Saxon witanagemot, composed of 
officers of state, barons, and judges, to which he gave crim- 
inal and civil jurisdiction over all matters (original and ap- 
pellate) and also power over all matters connected with the 
exchequer, such as feudal reliefs, fines, and forfeitures ; and 
