The doctrines of champerty and maintenance live on in Delaware, at least for the time being. In Charge Injection Technologies v. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., C.A. No. N07C-12-134-JRJ (Del. Super., Feb. 27, 2014), interlocutory appeal refused, No. 160, 2014 (Del. Apr. 7, 2014), the Superior Court considered whether the doctrines of champerty and maintenance are dead in Delaware and held that, absent a ruling to that effect from the Delaware Supreme Court, it would continue to recognize the doctrines.
Champerty is an agreement between the owner of a claim and a volunteer that the latter may take the claim and collect it, dividing the proceeds with the owner, if they prevail; the champertor carries on the suit at its own expense. Champerty cannot be charged against one with an interest in the matter; an agreement is not champertous where the assignee has some legal or equitable interest in the subject matter of the litigation independent from the terms of the assignment. Maintenance is an “officious intermeddling” in a suit that in no way belongs to the intermeddler by maintaining or assisting a party to the action, with money or otherwise, to prosecute or defend it.
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