Opinion ID: 2015956
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 17

Heading: Platted and Subdivided Land

Text: The law has long been that an individual cannot adversely possess a public way. See, e.g., Teter v. Teter, 163 W.Va. 770, 260 S.E.2d 270 (1979). However, when streets are laid out on a plat but are not so used by the public, they are nothing more than private ways and may be adversely possessed. See, e.g., Bauer Enterprises, Inc. v. City of Elkins, 173 W.Va. 438, 317 S.E.2d 798 (1984); Gammons v. Caswell, 447 A.2d 361 (R.I.1982); Schlueter v. Ackerman, 215 Md. 173, 137 A.2d 179 (1957); Mumaw v. Roberson, 60 So.2d 741 (Fla.1952); Cook v. Langhorne, 219 Ark. 443, 242 S.W.2d 838 (1951). This court has adopted this view. See Schock v. Falls City, 31 Neb. 599, 48 N.W. 468 (1891). In Schock, the trial court sustained a demurrer to the plaintiff's petition. The petition had alleged that the plaintiff's land had been previously surveyed, platted, and laid out into lots, blocks, streets, and alleys. The grantors of plaintiff had enclosed and cultivated part of the platted land, including a section platted as a street, which had never been opened or prepared for public use. More than 10 years after the street had been enclosed and allegedly adversely possessed, the city of Falls City threatened to remove the plaintiff's fences and open the street to public use. This court stated, If the allegations in the petition are true, the plaintiff has been in possession of the land in controversy adversely for a sufficient length of time to give him title by adverse possession. Id. at 605, 48 N.W. at 470. We held that the petition stated a cause of action entitling the plaintiff to relief. In Roberts v. Duddles, 47 Mich.App. 601, 209 N.W.2d 720 (1973), the appellant argued that the acknowledgment and recording of a plat creates an adverse possession estoppel between successor owners. The court rejected that argument: So long as the incidents of adverse possession are complied with, platted land is no less subject to adverse possession than unplatted land. To hold otherwise would defeat the historical and general application of the doctrine. Id. at 605, 209 N.W.2d at 722. Accordingly, we conclude that the fact Lot 104 was platted does not act to defeat the Wanhas' adverse possession claim.