" "But .... such twenty years' possession must
be either by the same person, or several persons claiming one
from the other, which is not the case here." /1/
In a word, it is equally clear that the continuous possession of
privies in title, or, in Roman phrase, successors, has all the
effect of the continuous possession of one, and that such an
effect is not attributed to the continuous possession of
different persons who are not in the same chain of title. One who
dispossesses another of land cannot add the time during which his
disseisee has used a way to the period of his own use, while one
who purchased can. /2/
The authorities which have been quoted make it plain that the
English law proceeds on the same theory as the Roman. One who
buys land of another gets the very same estate which his seller
had. He is in of the same fee, or hereditas, which means, as I
have shown, that he sustains the same persona. On the other hand,
one who wrongfully dispossesses another,--a disseisor,--gets a
different estate, is in of a new fee, although the land is the
same; and much technical reasoning is based upon this doctrine.
In the matter of prescription, therefore, buyer and seller were
identified, like heir and ancestor.
Pages:
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454