Also known as: adverse use · hostile use · adverse possession element · hostile possession
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Use of land belonging to another that is made without permission and in assertion of a claim of right hostile to the owner's interests.
Audrey Ashton drove maintenance trucks across Anchor Bank's rear gravel path several times each week for eight years without any permission or break in her asserted right. Anchor Bank never interrupted the pattern. The unbroken attitude of claim supports the continuity element of adverse use.
Amelia Amari installed and maintained fiber optic cable along a strip of Alliance Holdings' land for fifteen years. Alliance Holdings never brought suit or physically stopped the activity. The absence of interruption preserves the hostile character of the use.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Albert Allen's nonprofit club walked a dirt path across Ava Adebayo's farm only in spring and fall for twenty-two years. The use remained open and without consent throughout the period. The continuous hostile pattern satisfies the prescription requirement.
Anika Anand's company paved and used a disputed strip of Andrew Avery's property for parking over twelve years. The denial of rights extended only to the paved area actually occupied. The durational extent of any resulting easement is confined to that precise scope.
Aurora Biotech ran weekly delivery vehicles across Azure Solutions' access road for the full prescriptive period. The use was never authorized. Aurora Biotech gains immunity from trespass liability for those acts during the period.
The first owner of a lakeside cabin walked a trail across a neighbor's meadow each summer for ten years. The successor owner continued the identical pattern for another ten years after purchasing the cabin. The combined hostile use meets the statutory period.
Use is adverse and hostile when it occurs without permission and asserts a claim of right against the owner's interests. The absence of any grant or consent combined with open assertion of the right satisfies the element.
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A break in the essential attitude of mind required for adverse use interrupts continuity. The use must remain consistently hostile throughout the period without any shift to permission or subordination.
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The owner interrupts adverse use by bringing suit that determines the use lacks legal justification or by causing cessation of the use without court action. Mere objection without further steps does not suffice.
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The durational extent of any easement is limited to the precise denial of the owner's rights that occurred during the adverse period. Broader or different uses fall outside the acquired right.
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Adverse use throughout the prescriptive period creates immunity from liability for the acts of use committed during that time. The user is protected from trespass claims arising from the qualifying conduct.
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…appellants contend that their constitutionally established rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to exclude appellees from adverse use of appellants' private property cannot be denied by invocation of a state constitutional provision or by judicial reconstruction of a State's laws of private property. We postponed…