Opinion ID: 1206085
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: adverse possession against coos county

Text: The state next contends that it is entitled to ownership by adverse possession of Section 34. The state maintains that it has exercised continuous, hostile, exclusive, open dominion over the parcel for the statutory period under a claim of right. The county responds that the state is foreclosed from claiming title through adverse possession by ORS 275.027, which reads: The rights of any county to public lands are not extinguished by adverse possession. No title or property rights to public lands shall be acquired against the county through operation of a statute of limitations. This statute seems unambiguous, but the state has raised two arguments against its applicability in this instance: (1) that as a statute of general applicability [i]t was never intended to diminish the sovereignty of the State of Oregon, relying upon State Land Board v. Campbell, 140 Or. 196, 13 P.2d 346 (1932), and (2) that because the purpose of the statute is to prevent public ownership of land from being defeated by the negligence of public officers, it is inapplicable where the purpose of asserting adverse possession is to assure continued public ownership, albeit in the hands of the state rather than the county. The state's argument that ORS 275.027 effects a restraint upon sovereign authority and is thus inapplicable in this instance misapprehends the nature of the doctrine of adverse possession. Acquisition of title by adverse possession is based upon the running of the statute of limitations for bringing an action to recover real property. ORS 12.050 reads: An action for the recovery of real property, or for the recovery of the possession thereof, shall be commenced within 10 years. No action shall be maintained for such recovery unless it appear that the plaintiff, an ancestor, predecessor, or grantor was seized or possessed of the premises in question within 10 years before the commencement of the action. ORS 12.250 reads: Unless otherwise made applicable thereto, the limitations prescribed in this chapter shall not apply to actions brought in the name of the state, or any county, or other public corporation therein, or for its benefit. The statute of limitations focuses not upon the actions (or the identity) of the adverse possessor, but upon the inaction of the record owner; not upon the rights gained by the adverse possessor, but upon rights lost to the record owner by the running of the statute. Satisfying the elements of adverse possession is a condition necessary to running the statute of limitations but not sufficient to vest title where the statute does not apply. Consequently, ORS 12.250 and ORS 275.027 are properly viewed not as limiting the ability of adverse possessors to acquire title to county lands, but as removing an impediment to the county's ability to defend its record title to real property. We recently approved Tiffany's explanation of the operation of the statute: Ordinarily at least, the statutes of limitations with reference to land in terms impose no requirement upon the person in wrongful possession as to the character of his possession necessary to make the bar effective, and it is merely by reason of the endeavor of the courts adequately to protect the interests of the rightful owner that certain requirements in this regard have become established. The most important of these requirements is that to the effect that the possession must be hostile or `adverse' to the true owner, and so generally has this requirement been recognized, and so important has it been regarded, that the expression `adverse possession' has come to be generally applied to describe that branch of the law which has to do with the construction and application of the statutes of limitation in reference to land. The emphasis thus laid upon the character of the wrongful possession has the unfortunate effect of obscuring the theory on which, as above stated, these statutes appear properly to operate, that is, that, like other statutes of limitation, they bar the remedy of the person rightfully entitled not by reason of any merit in the wrongdoer, but by reason of the demerit of the person who, having a remedy, fails to exercise it within the time named in the statute.  4 Tiffany, Real Property 699, § 1135 (3d ed. 1975), quoted in Evans v. Hogue, 296 Or. 745, 754-55 n. 5, 681 P.2d 1133 (1984). (Emphasis supplied.) The state can acquire title to real property by adversely possessing the land for the statutory period. Stephenson v. Van Blokland, 60 Or. 247, 118 P. 1026 (1911). However, the state's sovereign authority argument fails because the ability to acquire title by adverse possession, as opposed to immunity from adverse possession, is not an incident of sovereignty. A limitation upon the availability of adverse possession is not a limitation upon a sovereign prerogative. The state, like a private party, can obtain title to land through adverse possession, but its ability to do so is defined by the relevant statutes, and that ability, absent a specific statutory exception, is no greater than that of any private party. Accord Ostrander v. Bell, 199 App. Div. 304, 192 N.Y.S. 262, 267 (1921), aff'd 234 N.Y. 566, 138 N.E. 449 (1922); Williams v. North Carolina State Board of Education, 266 N.C. 761, 147 S.E.2d 381, 385 (1966); State v. Vanderkoppel, 45 Wyo. 432, 19 P.2d 955, 957 (1933). ORS 275.027 bars the doctrine's use, without exception, against county-owned public land. ORS 12.250 frees a county from the restrictions imposed upon ejectment actions by ORS 12.050, again without exception. The state's possession of Section 34, however adverse, has not rendered the county's title indefensible, and so has not vested title in the state. The state's public ownership argument is equally unpersuasive. That a statute's nonenforcement in a particular situation will conform to its purpose as well as will its enforcement is not a sufficient rationale for holding the statute inapplicable in that situation. Also, ORS 275.027 and ORS 12.250 do not protect public ownership as an abstract good. The specific public interest served by removing the impediment of ORS 12.050 in this instance is that of the residents of Coos County, who are entitled to the same degree of protection against forfeitures caused by the errors and negligent inaction of their officers regardless of the identity of the opposing party. While it is true that state ownership of Section 34 would inure to the benefit of Coos County residents as well as to that of the other citizens of Oregon, the benefit would be vastly attenuated in comparison to that derived from direct county ownership of the property.