Real Property -- 1954 Tennessee Survey

Champertous Deeds and Adverse Possession: There were two cases, Robinson v. Harris, and State v. McNabb, which used the questionable champertous deed concept to reach what seem to be just results. The sixteenth century doctrine, enacted by statute in Tennessee, is that a deed of conveyance executed and delivered by a title owner while the land is held in the adverse possession of another is void. As pointed out in the 1953 Survey article, however, recent Tennessee cases have tended to ignore a line of nationally recognized Tennessee equity cases holding that the deed is not void; that the transfer is good as between the grantor and the grantee and all persons in privity with them; that the grantee is entitled to sue in the name of the grantor; and that if the grantor recovers possession from the adverse possessor, it inures to the benefit of the grantee.