ADVERSE POSSESSION - POSSESSION UNDER MISTAKE AS TO TRUE BOUNDARY

Authors

S. R. Stroud, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

Plaintiff and defendant's predecessor in title made a mistake in locating the boundary line between their lots. Laboring under this misapprehension, the plaintiff constructed a cottage which in fact was partially on land of defendant's predecessor in title. Defendant, having purchased the adjoining lot, caused a survey to be made and discovered that the cottage of the plaintiff and the wall constructed by plaintiff and defendant's predecessor encroached upon defendant's land. However, plaintiff remained in possession without admitting defendant's title and in 1937 sued to establish title by adverse possession. The lower court found that having been in possession for the statutory period of fifteen years he acquired title by adverse possession. Held, reversed, possession under mistake with the intent to hold only to the true line is not adverse. Two judges dissented. Warner v. Noble, 286 Mich. 654, 282 N. W. 855 (1938).

Recommended Citation

S. R. Stroud, ADVERSE POSSESSION - POSSESSION UNDER MISTAKE AS TO TRUE BOUNDARY, 37 Mich. L. Rev. 1124 (1939).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol37/iss7/11