Adverse possession is the possession of land belonging to another with the intention of possessing it as one’s own land. In Michigan, MCL 600.5801(4) requires that adverse possessors hold land for at least 15 years in order to bring a claim for title by way of adverse possession. In order for a party to prevail on a claim for title by way of adverse possession, they must show that they possessed the disputed property openly, adversely, exclusively, and continuously for the statutorily-specified minimum period. See Burns v Foster, 348 Mich 8, 14; 81 NW2d 386 (1957), and Kipka v Fountain, 198 Mich App 435, 439; 499 NW2d 363 (1993). A party making an adverse possession claim can meet the time requirement by tacking their possessory period to that of their predecessors in interest with whom they are in privity of estate. Arduino v Detroit, 249 Mich 382, 384; 228 NW 694 (1930).
The 15 year time requirement was at issue in Goodrich v Cook, unpublished decision of the Court of Appeals Case Number 333418 (Decided August 10, 2017). In Goodrich, the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s order granting plaintiff title to the property at issue by way of adverse possession. The property at issue in Goodrich included two parcels that were mistakenly excluded from a prior conveyance involving additional parcels. Thereafter, the plaintiffs defaulted on their mortgage and their property was seized. However, because of the error in the prior conveyance, two of the lots that were mistakenly omitted from the prior conveyance were also not listed on the mortgage and therefore were not seized. Defendants subsequently purchased the foreclosed property and the present dispute arose over the ownership of the two parcels mistakenly excluded from the prior conveyance and subsequent foreclosure proceedings.
Plaintiff’s claimed legal title to the property by way of adverse possession. However, Defendants countered that Plaintiff’s had only possessed the property for 9 years and therefore could not claim title to the property by way of adverse possession unless their possession time was tacked to a prior possessor’s time to reach the 15 year time requirement. The Court agreed with the Plaintiffs calculation of time finding that their possession could be tacked to the prior possessor’s time because the prior possessors showed the Plaintiffs around the property boundaries as they understood them, and plaintiffs took actual possession immediately afterwards. As such, Plaintiffs were granted legal title to the two parcels at issue.
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