Title: White v. Brian Bank Trust

State: delaware

Issuer: Delaware Supreme Court

Document:

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE 
 
REGGIE WHITE, 
 
Non-Party Below, 
Appellant, 
 
v. 
 
BRIAN BANK TRUST, 
 
Plaintiff Below, 
Appellee. 
§ 
§    No. 373, 2018 
§   
§ 
§   Court Below—Superior Court 
§    of the State of Delaware 
§   
§    C.A. No. S18C-03-014 
§ 
§ 
§ 
 
 
 
 
 
Submitted:  February 22, 2019 
 
 
 
 
     Decided:  May 3, 2019 
 
Before STRINE, Chief Justice; VAUGHN and SEITZ, Justices. 
 
 
ORDER 
 
Upon consideration of the parties’ briefs and the record on appeal, it appears 
to the Court that: 
(1) 
The appellee, Reggie White, filed this appeal, purportedly on behalf of 
the defendant below Ricky White, from a Superior Court order entering judgment in 
favor of the plaintiff below-appellee, Brian Bank Trust, in an ejectment action.  After 
careful consideration of the parties’ arguments, we affirm the Superior Court’s 
judgment.  
(2) 
The record reflects that, in 2010, Brian Bank Trust bought tax parcel 
#2-30-5.20-30.00 in Lincoln, Delaware (“the Property”).  While renovating the 
house on the front of the Property for rental purposes, Brian Bank Trust learned from 
2 
 
a neighbor that people were living in trailers on the back of the Property, behind the 
tree line.  Brian Bank Trust hired a surveyor, who prepared a survey in 2010 that 
showed two trailers on the Property and two trailers partially on the Property and 
partially on another property.  A Brian Bank Trust representative went to the trailers 
and notified a person who identified himself as Ricky White that Brian Bank Trust 
owned the Property and anyone living in the trailers had to leave.  Brian Bank Trust 
assumed anyone living in the trailers had left, but years later received warnings from 
Sussex County about trash and other problems caused by people living on the back 
of the Property.     
(3) 
On March 14, 2018, Brian Bank Trust filed a complaint for ejectment 
against “Ricky White and Other Possible Unknown Persons Residing in Trailers on 
the Back of the Property in Question” in the Superior Court.  No one filed an answer 
to the complaint, but members of the White family appeared at an April 20, 2018 
hearing to object to ejectment.  An ejectment hearing was scheduled for June 7, 2018. 
(4) 
At the June 7, 2018 hearing, the Superior Court heard testimony from 
a title searcher, the trustor and trustee of the Brian Bank Trust, Earl White (Ricky 
White’s brother), and Reggie White (Ricky White’s son).  According to Reggie 
White, Ricky White could not participate because he was in the hospital.  At the end 
of the hearing, the Superior Court directed the parties to file written summations.  
3 
 
The Brian Bank Trust filed a written summation, but the Whites did not and the 
Superior Court denied their request for an extension to obtain legal counsel. 
(5) 
In an order dated July 13, 2018, the Superior Court held that: (i) the 
Brian Bank Trust was legal owner of the Property as shown in a certified copy of the 
deed, tax records, and the survey; (ii) the Brian Bank Trust was entitled to immediate 
and exclusive possession of the Property; and (iii) the Whites made no credible 
showing to establish adverse possession.  The Sussex County Sheriff was ordered to 
remove anyone occupying the trailers at the back of the Property.   
(6) 
On July 20, 2018, Reggie White filed a notice of appeal.  On July 27, 
2018, Earl White filed a motion to set aside the judgment, which the Superior Court 
treated as a motion to stay ejectment pending appeal.  The Superior Court granted 
the motion.  On appeal, Reggie White argues that the Whites have possessed the land 
since 1969 as reflected in tax records and previous court rulings.  The Brian Bank 
Trust argues that Reggie White lacks standing to bring this appeal and that the 
Whites failed to establish adverse possession.     
(7) 
As Brian Bank Trust points out, Reggie White has not offered any 
evidence to show that he is authorized to represent Ricky White.  In addition, Reggie 
White does not fall within the defendants sued by Brian Bank Trust as he testified 
that he lived in Dover, not on the Property.  Earl White testified that he had lived on 
the Property for many years, but he did not join in this appeal.  Even assuming 
4 
 
Reggie White has standing to bring this appeal, he has not shown that the Superior 
Court erred in concluding that Brian Bank Trust possessed the Property and that the 
Whites failed to establish adverse possession.  
(8) 
As the Superior Court recognized, the Brian Bank Trust supported its 
claim of ownership of the Property with a deed, tax records showing it had paid the 
property taxes on the Property since acquiring it (as well as back taxes), and a survey.  
To claim the Property by adverse possession, the Whites had to show possession of 
the Property in an open, notorious, hostile, and exclusive manner for twenty years.1  
They failed to do so.   
(9) 
The Whites testified that family members had lived on the Property 
since 1969, but other than this testimony offered little to support their claim.  The 
trailer that Earl White said he lived in did not appear on the 2010 survey.  Reggie 
White argues that Ricky White is listed as the owner of the Property on tax records, 
but the only tax documentation in the record for Ricky White relates to his failure to 
pay taxes on a mobile home on land next to the Property.   
(10) As to Reggie White’s claim that courts have previously ruled that Ricky 
White owned the Property, he is mistaken.  In 2006, the Justice of the Peace Court 
held that it lacked jurisdiction to determine possession of certain property (it is 
                                          
 
1 Dorman v. Mitchell, 2004 WL 2520911, at *1 n.3 (Del. Nov. 2004); David v. Steller, 269 A.2d 
203, 204 (Del. 1970). 
5 
 
unclear if this is the Property or nearby property) because it could not determine if 
there was a rental agreement between Ricky White and a former owner of the 
Property.2  In 2012, the Superior Court granted First State Community Action 
Agency’s petition to eject Ricky White from tax parcel #2-30-13.00-34.00.3  The 
Superior Court did not err in finding that the Whites failed to show adverse 
possession of the Property.           
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that the judgment of the Superior 
Court is AFFIRMED.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
BY THE COURT: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
/s/  James T. Vaughn, Jr.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
Justice 
                                          
 
2 Williams v. White, C.A. No. J0511019717 Order (J.P. Ct. Apr. 10, 2006). 
3 First State Community Action v. White, C.A. No. S11C-09-035 Order (Del. Super. Ct. Apr. 20, 
2012).