Opinion ID: 1982246
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the subsequent deeds

Text: Mr. Smith contends that even if Ms. Piggot obtained title by adverse possession in 1950 to that portion of the right of way which was occupied by the wall, the preexisting easement was recreated when the property was transferred to Ms. Tippett by a deed which explicitly recognized the continued existence of a right of way four feet wide. We cannot agree. Title to property acquired by adverse possession matures into an absolute fee interest after the statutory prescriptive period has expired. 7 POWELL, supra, § 1017 at 91-77. The Supreme Court has held that the lapse of time provided by the statute of limitations not only bars the original owner's remedy, but also extinguishes his right, and vests a perfect title in the adverse holder. Bicknell v. Comstock, 113 U.S. 149, 152, 5 S.Ct. 399, 400, 28 L.Ed. 962 (1885). Accord, Sharon v. Tucker, 144 U.S. 533, 542-45, 12 S.Ct. 720, 721-723, 36 L.Ed. 532 (1892) (decided under District of Columbia law). Title to land acquired by adverse possession is as perfect as title acquired by deed from the record owner. Scott v. Herrell, 31 App. D.C. 45, 53 (1908). [10] As the Supreme Court of Washington explained in El Cerrito, Inc. v. Ryndak, 60 Wash.2d 847, 855, 376 P.2d 528, 532 (1963): When real property has been held by adverse possession for [the period described by statute], such possession ripens into an original title. Title so acquired by the adverse possessor cannot be divested by acts other than those required where title was acquired by deed. (Emphasis added). See also Baker v. Oakwood, 123 N.Y. 16, 25 N.E. 312 (1890); Connell v. Ellison, 86 A.D.2d 943, 944, 448 N.Y.S.2d 580, 581 (3d Dept.1982); 5 THOMPSON, supra, § 2541, at 585-87. These authorities conclusively dispose of Mr. Smith's claim that the easement was re-created. He is a complete stranger to the deed from Ms. Piggot to the Capers in 1973 and to the conveyance from the Capers to Ms. Tippett three years later. If Ms. Piggot had obtained title to the disputed portion of the easement by quitclaim deeds from Mr. Smith and the other easement holders, rather than by adverse possession, Mr. Smith surely could not claim that the contents of a later transaction between Ms. Piggot and the Capers, or one between the Capers and Ms. Tippett, had somehow undone the prior quitclaims and caused a long dead easement to be reborn. The case law cited above conclusively establishes that Ms. Piggot's acquisition of title by adverse possession had the same effect as if she had secured it by deed. Mr. Smith's interest in the contents of a conveyance between two strangers to him is just as remote as it would be if the disputed portion of the easement had initially been extinguished by deed rather than by adverse possession. Mr. Smith argues that the deed from Ms. Piggot to the Capers is the best evidence of what Ms. Piggot intended to convey, and that the same principle holds true for the Capers' deed to Ms. Tippett. Since each of these deeds recognized a four-foot easement, he contends, then such an easement must continue to exist. Assuming, arguendo, that Mr. Smith's conception of what constitutes the best evidence is correct, [11] then the grantors of each of those deeds might perhaps be heard to claim that the grantees took only what was in the record title, and no more. Anything that the grantees did not take, however, would surely still belong to the grantors, and not to a stranger. Mr. Smith's interest had been extinguished long before the transactions involving Ms. Piggot, the Capers and Ms. Tippett. There is simply no basis in fact or law for his claim that the fortuitous circumstance that Lot 40 was transferred by deed twice in the 1970's could revive his own former interest, which had met its demise in 1950. [12]