Disseisin and Adverse Possession

Abstract

No better illustration of the power of an apt phrase to make its own way is likely to present itself than the case of adverse possession. Apparently the first one to use it was Lord Mansfield in the great case of Taylor d. Atkyns v. Horde' but he was seemingly not conscious of phrasemaking for he did not use it in his onslaught on disseisin but incidentally in discussing the statute of limitations. The law had already become settled that not every wrongful possession would cause the statute to run and this had been placed on the ground that it required a disseisin to start the statute running, 2 but after the scorn Lord Mansfield had cast on the word disseisin,3 he was evidently loath to use it in such a live matter as the running of the statute and hit on adverse possession instead. Its usefulness in that connection was so great that it was generally adopted and at the time of the reform legislation of 1833 a "mere adverse possession" 4 that would start the statute running was being distinguished from a technical disseisin. 5 Disseisin and "non-adverse possession ' 7 alike fell with the Real Property Limitation Act of 1833 and although the term adverse posses-(1757, K. B.) i Burr. 6o, ii.