tack, vb.
1. To add (one’s own period of land possession) to a prior possessor’s period to establish continuous adverse possession for the statutory period. [Cases: Adverse Possession 43. C.J.S. Adverse Possession § 154.]
2. To annex (a junior lien) to a first lien to acquire priority over an intermediate lien.
“It is the established doctrine in the English law, that if there be three mortgages in succession, and all duly registered, or a mortgage, and then a judgment, and then a second mortgage upon the estate, the junior mortgagee may purchase in the first mortgage, and tack it to his mortgage, and by that contrivance ‘squeeze out’ the middle mortgage and gain preference over it. The same rule would apply if the first as well as the second incumbrance was a judgment; but the incumbrancer who tacks must always be a mortgagee, for he stands in the light of a bonâ fide purchaser, parting with his money upon the security of the mortgage.” 4 James Kent, Commentaries on American Law *176 (George Comstock ed., 11th ed. 1866).
3. Scots law. To lease land or another immovable for an annual rent payable in money, services, or fruits produced on the land.
