parent nodes: adverse possession | Anderson v Cold Spring Tungsten | burden of proof | color of title | easement | Fleming v Griswold | Grace v Koch | joint tenancy | marketable title | Meyer v Law | real property | Real Property | recording act | relation-back doctrine
adverse possession
Adverse possession comes about from the [statute of limitations] that bar a chose of action for real property or personal property after a certain amount of time. In this way, the title itself is transferred to the adverse possessor after the statute expires
Requirements at common law
To successfully gain title through adverse possession, a person's use of property must be:actual:
continuous:possession without interruption by either physical eviction or action in court.
exclusive: sole physical occupancy or occupancy by another with the permission of the person claiming title through adverse possession
hostile: the possession is held against the whole world including the true owner.
and open/notorious: occupying the property as an owner would for all the world to see if the owner cared to look. Thus, entry by permission of the true owner cannot create adverse possession. Grace v Koch; cf Anderson v Cold Spring Tungsten (no permission).
The burden of proof to establish adverse possession is typically on the adverse possessor.
A person who adversely possesses a part of a piece of real property under color of title can gain title to the entire piece of property.
The [statute of limitations] does not begin to run if at the time of entry the person who would hold the chose of action in ejectment against the adverse possessor is under a disability such as minority, imprisonment, insanity, etc. Additionally, if a disability exists at the time the title under threat of adverse possession shall first descend or accrue, it stops the [statute of limitations]. Fleming v Griswold.
Additionally, one person's period of adverse possession can be "tacked" on to that of another with which the first adverse possessor is in [privity], for example through a [conveyance] under color of title.
Statutory requirements
Statute may limit the means through which a person can gain [adverse possesion] of real property. One means is by requiring the adverse possessor to enter under color of title, through entering under a valid deed, paying property taxes, etc. Meyer v Law.
Adverse possession can’t be defeated by recording acts, etc.
Statute of limitations for adverse possessors
Relation-back doctrine
The law regards an adverse possessor as having owned the property from the moment he began that possession. For example, if a person finds a chattel on land after adverse possession has begun (and which will become successful later), he holds title to that chattel by virtue of being the owner of the locus in quo.
Economic considerations
According to Fennel ("Efficient Trespass"), the true purpose of adverse possession law shift land to parties who value it more highly than do the recordowners. (However, people may have idiosyncratic values that may be hard to measure). It would be better if the law required demonstration that the adverse possessor knew they were encroaching; otherwise, the law creates perverse incentives for the adverse possessor to be ignorant of title According to Fennel, adverse possession doesn’t encourage illegal behavior because an adverse possessor is trying to take rightful possession; adverse possession should ideally happen only where there’s no real market for the land. In situations of adverse possession, bargaining can be hard to achieve, so that a court in effect imposes a price through a liability rule on the two parties
Cases
Cases finding adverse possession
Fleming v Griswold
Anderson v Cold Spring Tungsten (adverse possesion of cabin, despite only occasional use as vacation home, as well as despite occasional trespasses by the public)Cases finding no adverse possesion
Grace v Koch (no notoriety in using land with owner's permission)
Meyer v Law (no color of title in unintentionally fencing another's land)
[alias: adversely possesses]
[alias: adverse possessor]