PROPERTY: Adverse Possession—Assertion of a "Claim of Right"

The Lawletter Vol 36 No 3, November 11, 2011

Scott Meacham, Senior Attorney, National Legal Research Group

Anyone pursuing a claim for adverse possession must assert that he or she is acting under a "claim of right," essentially a claim of ownership.  This requirement traditionally has not presented a very high hurdle, but it and its statutory offspring recently came to the fore in the case of Hogan v. Kelly, 927 N.Y.S.2d 157 (App. Div. 2011).

At common law, an adverse possession claimant did not need believe that she had somehow acquired actual title to the disputed property or that a title search would show the land to be owned by her rather than by another.  Indeed, even a claimant who had actual knowledge of another party's ownership was permitted to assert a "claim of right."  All that was needed....