Opinion ID: 2637937
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: West of the house

Text: The superior court found that Green had by adverse possession established title to property extending 300 feet to the west of the house. Although the court did not specify what evidence of actual use supported its conclusion, the record contains evidence that Green used at least some of the area to the west of the house. There is also some indication that Green believed herself to be the owner of land extending to the western end of her grandparents' lot: In the 1980s, she looked into purchasing the adjacent land to the west. However, it is not clear which, if any, of Green's physical uses supports the superior court's finding that her possession extended 300 feet west from the house. Therefore, we remand the case for additional findings supporting the trial court's conclusion, or for reconsideration of the western boundary of Green's property. Green and other witnesses testified to three uses of the land to the west of the house. To the southwest, Green cleared trees to improve the view from the house. To the northwest, Green testified that she raised chickens and turkeys. Nothing in the record indicates how far to the west these activities extended. In addition, beginning in 1982, Green cleared and used an old road running across the western portion of the claimed property; she put a chain across the road at the border of the neighboring property and mounted No Trespassing signs. The road cut up from Old Richardson Highway and across the neighboring property to reach the top of the bluff. Green invested substantial time and labor in clearing the access road: She testified that she removed trees four inches in diameter from a swath wide enough to drive through. The record suggests two possible locations for the access road cleared by Green. Most testimony suggests that her road cuts through the navigable flat land directly to the west of the house, but other testimony indicates that the road runs along the telephone line at the northern edge of the property. In addition, it is unclear from the record whether the location of Green's chain across the road correlates to the 300-foot boundary defined by the court, or whether the chained section was in fact nearer or farther than 300 feet from the house. Nome 2000 v. Fagerstrom [47] provides some benchmarks for determining what actual use is sufficient to establish adverse possession. In that case, we found that the claimants' use of the north end of a disputed property constituted adverse possession, while their use of the south end did not. [48] The possessors had built structures, planted trees, and resided on the north end of the property, [49] but in the south they had only used pre-existing trails in connection with subsistence and recreation, picked up litter, and allegedly placed stakes at the corners of the claimed property. [50] Green's use of the western area of the bluff property goes beyond the use found inadequate in Nome 2000: She cleared a road through the woods, marked her border clearly with a chain, cleared trees, and raised poultry. Depending how far west these activities extended, they may be sufficient to support the court's award of property extending 300 feet west of the house. We remand this issue to the trial court for further findings regarding Green's actual use of that area.