After-acquired property

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After-acquired property is real property or personal property to which party A obtains title only after falsely selling it to party B for value when party A did so without proper title. An example would be Colonel Sanders pretends to sell "My Old Kentucky Home" to Daniel Boone for $1000 (US) but does not own the property at the time and then uses the money to actually buy that same property from the true owner. The apparent outcome would be Col. Sanders owns the property and Boone has lost $1000.

Because the result of the set of transactions would be an injustice, a legal concept called the "After-acquired-title doctrine" vests the legal title in the property in party B even though buying it before party A had legal title to the property and therefore had no right to transfer the title.^[1] This is an application of the principle of equity to property law. Historically, equity was applied in England in special chancery courts, but in the US, remedies at both law and equity are given in a single court.

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