Court Opinion

ID: 9935596
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-09 18:56:20.472999+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:26.987124
License: Public Domain

In Alabama there are two types of adverse possession: statutory adverse possession and adverse possession by prescription. Statutory adverse possession requires actual, exclusive, open, notorious and hostile possession for ten years under claim of right, plus color of title, payment of taxes *Page 825 
for ten years, or a title derived by descent cast or devise from a possessor. Code 1975, § 6-5-200. See, Long v. Ladd,273 Ala. 410, 142 So.2d 660 (1962). Adverse possession by prescription is wholly common law, and requires actual, exclusive, open, notorious and hostile possession for twenty years under a claim of right. See, Fitts v. Alexander, 277 Ala. 372, 170 So.2d 808 (1965).
The burden of proof as to the elements of each is the same, the difference between the two types of adverse possession being the added elements and the reduced time of possession required under the statute. See, Powell v. Hopkins, 288 Ala. 466, 262 So.2d 289 (1972); Brannan v. Henry, 175 Ala. 454,57 So. 967 (1912). The failure to correctly distinguish between these two types of adverse possession has in the past led to much confusion, and I do not feel that this confusion should be continued.