Neighbors Become Enemies - Adverse Possession

New York's highest court - the New York Court of Appeals - recently decided a case called Estate of Becker v. Murtagh, 2012 WL 1080325 (2012) that paints an interesting picture of friendly neighbors becoming unfriendly over a claim of adverse possession.Adverse possession is an ancient (though occasionally current) means of acquiring an interest in land from another simply through its use. When a person occupies another person's land for a period of 10 years or more that user will acquire title to the owner's land - so long as certain conditions are true. Traditionally, in order to acquire title to another's land via adverse possession the occupation of the property must be:

(1) Hostile and under a claim of right; (2) Actually occupied; (3) Open and notoriously used; (4) Exclusively used; (5) Continuously used for at least ten years and;(6) The user must have usually cultivated or improved the land.

After centuries of this being the standard for adverse possession the New York State Legislature amended the adverse possession statute in 2008 to make the standard more difficult for the person seeking title via adverse possession. In the Murtagh case the facts of the adverse possession occurred prior to 2008 and so the new statute was not applicable.In the Murtagh case there were neighbors who lived side by side in Oak Beach in the Town of Babylon and the County of Suffolk on Long Island. The neighbors were the Beckers and the Gordons. The Town of Babylon encouraged the neighbors to construct jetties on their beachfront lots to inhibit beach erosion. Shortly after the erection of the jetty that separated the properties, the Becker family erected a four foot dock using the jetty for support. He later added a boardwalk.From 1963 through 1984, the Beckers acted as the owners of the boardwalk and dock. It was the Beckers who built it, maintained it, painted it, and exercised dominion and control over it. The Beckers - as friendly neighbors - permitted the Gordons and other specific neighbors to use it but prevented the general public from doing so. In 1984, the Gordons had their property surveyed and learned that the dock and boardwalk was actually constructed on the Gordons' property and not on the Beckers' property. Despite the Beckers and the Gordons now knowing that the dock and boardwalk were on the Gordon side of the property line the use continued as it had before. In 2004 the Gordons sold their property to the Murtaghs. The Murtaghs then informed the Beckers that they could no longer use the dock and boardwalk that the Beckers had build decades before. The Beckers started a lawsuit seeking a determination that the disputed dock and boardwalk was the property of the Beckers claiming that it had been acquired by adverse possession. The Murtaghs countersued. What ensued was a protracted lawsuit that took 8 years to complete.The trial court ruled in favor of the Beckers and determined that the Beckers had acquired the disputed land via adverse possession. The intermediate appellate court reversed and ruled for the Murtaghs. The Court of Appeals reversed again - and put an end to the lawsuit - by finally ruling for the Beckers.The Court held that the Beckers had exclusively, openly, and notoriously occupied the dock and boardwalk for more than 10 years. The Court further held that the Beckers had exclusively improved and cultivated the property by building the dock and boardwalk and then maintaining it for more than 10 years. The lesson of this case is that should a neighbor be using your property under a claim of right you could potentially lose title to that portion of your property. If a neighbor is doing construction near what you believe to be the property line check your survey or have a survery done to make sure that the sanctity of your property line is not breached. In the Murtagh case the friendly neighbor won but a dispute over adverse possession could turn friendly neighbors into very unfriendly ones.