Opinion
June Term, 1806.
Deed for lands in the actual adverse possession of another person is totally void.
THE lessor of the plaintiff claimed the land in question under the Trustees of the University of North Carolina; he obtained a deed for the land when Shearer, the defendant, was in the actual possession, claiming the land as his own. The question in the case was whether this deed was valid.
From Salisbury.
This deed is totally void, inasmuch as the common law does not permit a right of entry to be transferred or sold, and for the reason assigned in Co. Lit., 214, "to avoid maintenance, suppression of right, and stirring up suits; and therefore nothing in action, entry or re-entry can be granted over; for so under color thereof pretended titles might be granted to great men, whereby right might be trodden down and the weak oppressed, which the common law forbiddeth; as men to grant before they be in possession." This question has been so often decided in this State that the Court thought it had long since been at rest and would never be revived. Let judgment be entered for (115) the defendant.
NOTE. — This has been changed by statute, Rev., 400; Burnett v. Lyman, 141 N.C. 500. — W. C.