This week we wanted to bring your attention to an Appellate Division decision out of the Third Department which held, in part, that mowing a lawn, together with constructing and maintaining a driveway, were sufficient evidence to support a claim for Adverse Possession of a disputed strip of land.
The relevant facts of, and a link to, the case are set forth below:
Two adjoining parcels separated by a strip of land were acquired by the Plaintiffs’ predecessor in title in the 1990s. The Plaintiffs claimed that they had title to that strip of land, the former bed of an abandoned trolley line, by adverse possession. The Defendants, owners of property perpendicular to the strip of land, claimed ownership based on the tax map. The Appellate Division, Third Department, affirmed the grant of the Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and the dismissal of the Defendants’ counterclaim by the Supreme Court, Schenectady County. According to the Appellate Division,
“…plaintiffs satisfied their prima facie burden on their cause of action to quiet title. [The prior owner’s] affidavit makes clear that he continually possessed, cultivated, maintained and used the disputed area under a claim of right and to the exclusion of others, from 1991 to 2006. The manner in which he conveyed his claim of ownership – by mowing the lawn and constructing and plowing a driveway – would have been open and notorious to nearby property owners [citation omitted]. In light of the foregoing, a presumption of hostility arose and plaintiffs established, on a prima facie basis, that title to the disputed area vested in [the prior owner] by adverse possession in 2001 [citations omitted], and then transferred to plaintiffs when they purchased their properties [citation omitted].”
Hamil v. Casadei, 2023 NY Slip Op 01338, decided March 16, 2023, is posted at:
https://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2023/2023_01338.htm
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