Opinion ID: 1119403
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Heading: With the Exception of the Actual Building Encroachments, Mayo Lacked the Requisite Exclusivity to Adversely Possess the Eastern Portion of Lot 6; Therefore, Mayo Has Earned a Fee Simple Estate to the Areas Encroached by the Buildings and a Prescriptive Easement to the Remainder of the Claimed Land in the Eastern Portion of Lot 6.

Text: Alaska has two adverse possession statutes, AS 09.10.030 and AS 09.45.052 (formerly AS 09.25.050). Alaska Statute 09.10.030 contains the general adverse possession provision: No person may bring an action for the recovery of real property, or for the recovery of the possession of it unless commenced within 10 years. No action may be maintained for the recovery unless it appears that the plaintiff, an ancestor, a predecessor, or the grantor of the plaintiff was seized or possessed of the premises in question within 10 years before the commencement of action. AS 09.10.030 (amended 1994). Alaska Statute 09.10.030 is not just a statute of limitations, but can also be used as the basis for establishing new title through adverse possession. Ayers v. Day & Night Fuel Co., 451 P.2d 579, 581 (Alaska 1969). The other adverse possession statute, AS 09.45.052, allows claimants with color of title to establish legal title after passage of a shorter period, seven years. [6] Because Fowler is not claiming the eastern portion of Lot 6 under a color of title theory, her claim to Lot 6 is governed by AS 09.10.030. In Peters v. Juneau-Douglas Girl Scout Council, 519 P.2d 826, 832 (Alaska 1974), we stated that the purpose of the requirements for adverse possession is to put the true owner on notice of an adverse possessor's claim. Towards this end, the exclusivity and continuity of an adverse possessor's use of a disputed area must only rise to that level which would characterize an average owner's use of similar property. Nome 2000 v. Fagerstrom, 799 P.2d 304, 309 (Alaska 1990). The level of use also determines whether a claimant acquires a fee title estate via adverse possession or merely a prescriptive easement. [7] According to Professor Cunningham: The chief distinction is that in adverse possession the claimant occupies or possesses the disseisee's land, whereas in prescription [the claimant] makes some easement-like use of it.... ..... The most basic difference is between `use' and `possession', for that determines whether activities that are adverse will gain an easement or estate for the claimant. Usually it is obvious whether the activity is only use, such as passing over land, or possession, marked by occupation, fencing, or permanent improvements. Roger A. Cunningham, et al, The Law of Property § 8.7, at 451-52 (2d ed. 1993). Cunningham further explains that maintaining ... a paved driveway is usually treated as a prescriptive use, but its permanent, continuous, and substantial nature might lead a court to consider it possessory.... It seems the test should flow from the principle that possession implies not only the possessor's use but his exclusion of others, while use involves only limited activities that do not imply or require that others be excluded. Id. at 452 (emphasis added) (footnotes omitted). The Mayos' actual building encroachments onto Lot 6 were continuous, open, and adverse, and represent permanent physical improvements to the land that required the exclusion of others. Therefore, we find that Mayo acquired a fee simple estate to the areas of encroachment. Apart from the slight building encroachments, the Mayos used the eastern portion of Lot 6 for access to the rear of the house and the coal shed, garbage can storage, and an unimproved driveway. Fowler concedes that the Shermers, Tenala's predecessors in interest in Lot 6, also occasionally used this area for access to the rear of the Shermers' garage. Other than the slight building encroachments, the Mayos never placed any permanent improvements on Lot 6 and never fenced or posted the area as their own. Nothing in the Mayos' use of Lot 6 can be interpreted to have given notice to the true owners that the Mayos were claiming a possessory interest in the driveway strip. [8] Consequently, if the Mayos met the other requirements of continuous, uninterrupted, open, and adverse use, the interest in the unimproved driveway area of Lot 6 to which Fowler is entitled is a prescriptive easement, and not fee title. Tenala does not dispute that the Mayos have continuously and openly used, without interruption, the eastern portion of Lot 6 as a driveway since 1926. However, Tenala argues that this use was permissive. Therefore, the adversity of this use is the only open issue. We have held that there is a presumption that use by an alleged easement holder is permissive. City of Anchorage v. Nesbett, 530 P.2d 1324, 1330 n. 16 (Alaska 1975). This presumption is overcome by proof of a distinct and positive assertion of a right hostile to the owner of the property. Id. In Swift v. Kniffen, 706 P.2d 296, 304 (Alaska 1985), we stated that [t]he hostility element turns on the distinction between acquiescence and permission, and held that if the true owners merely acquiesce, and do not intend to permit a use, the claimant's use is adverse and hostile. Therefore, we must decide whether the record reveals that Tenala intended to permit the Mayos' use or merely acquiesced in that use. In Hubbard v. Curtiss, 684 P.2d 842, we stated that [t]he key difference between acquiescence by the true owner and possession with the permission of the true owner is that a permissive use requires the acknowledgment by the possessor that he holds in subordination to the owner's title. Id. at 848 (citations omitted). At trial, not only was there no evidence the Mayos were given formal permission to use the driveway, an officer of Tenala testified that the issue of the Mayos' use was never discussed with the Mayos. On direct testimony, Eugene Belland stated that he was aware of the Mayos' use and had never talked to Lee or Sally Mayo about it. [9] Belland's testimony is characteristic of acquiescence, rather than an affirmative intent to grant permission to continue the long-term use which predated Tenala's ownership. Statements made by Tenala to this court further support a conclusion that Tenala acquiesced in rather than intentionally permitted the Mayos' use. Tenala asserted in its opening brief that as a successor to Shermer, [Tenala] respected the uses by Sally Mayo thus allowed and arising during Shermer's ownership and did not interfere with Sally Mayo's exercise of the same. Nothing in the record contradicts the evidence of acquiescence. We consequently find that the requisite adversity existed and that Fowler, as representative of her mother's estate, acquired a prescriptive easement to the portion of the easterly fifteen feet of Lot 6 which is not improved by the Mayos' buildings, and acquired a fee simple estate to those areas of physical encroachments.