GRAFFIU M. A register ; a lieger-book or cartulary of deeds and evidences. 1 Annal. Eccles. Menevensio, apud Angl. Sax. 653.
In Equity. A term used to des ignate the right of a mortgagee in premises to which the mortgagor at the time of mak ing the mortgage had an imperfect title, but afterwards obtained a good title. In this case the new title is considered a graft into the old stock, enuring to the benefit of the mortgagee, and arising in consideration of the former title ;- 1 Ball & B. 40, 46, 57; 1 Pow. Mort. 190. See Porter v. Hill, 9 Mass. 34. "It is well settled that when a mort gage of land is made, purporting to convey the land in fee, any title afterward acquired by the mortgagor will feed the mortgage and enure to the benefit of the mortgagee." 1 Pingree, Mort. § 304; Clark v. Baker, 14 Cal. 612, 76 Am. Dec. 449; Sherman v. McCarthy, 57 Cal. 507; Orr v. Stewart, 67 Cal. 275, 7 Pac. 693. And this is so where the title was in the government when the mortgage was made and a. patent afterwards issued to the mortgagor; 1 Pingree, Mort. § 304; Spiess v. Neuberg, 71 Wis. 279, 37 N. W. 417, 5 Am. St. Rep. 211. See Hughes v. U. S., 4 Wall. (U. S.) 232, 18 L. Ed. 303; French v. Spencer, 21 How. (U. S.) 228, 16 L. Ed. 97.
But it is the prevailing doctrine that in the absence of statutory enactment there must be a covenant of warranty or something tantamount to it, to give this effect to the mortgage; Gray v. Franks, 86 Mich. 382, 49 N. W. 130; Howze v. Dew, 90 Ala. 178, 7 South. 239, 24 Am. St. Rep. 783; Kline v. Ragland, 47 Ark. 111, 14 S. W. 474. See 1 Pingree, Mort. §§ 696-706. The purchase of a paramount title by a purchaser from the mortgagor does not inure to the benefit of the mortgagee; id. § 1012; and in some cas es the mortgagee may be estopped to assert the after-acquired title of the mortgagor against an innocent purchaser ; id.; Calder v. Chapman, 52 Pa. 359, 91 Am. Dec. 163. The same principle has obtained by legisla tive enactment in Louisiana. If a person contracting an obligation towards another, says the Civil Code, art. 3271, grants a mort gage on property of which he is not then the owner, this mortgage shall be valid if the debtor should ever require the ownership of the property, by whatever right. This prin ciple is also adopted by statute in other states, as Arkansas ; Mansf. Dig. § 642; and California; Civ. Code § 2930. See MORTGAGE.