Court Opinion

ID: 9639236
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:08:52.0147+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:34:28.564357
License: Public Domain

TERRY JENNINGS, Justice,
dissenting from denial of rehearing.
Because the undisputed facts of this case are legally insufficient to sustain a claim of adverse possession, I respectfully dissent.
In their second point of error, appellants contend that there is legally insufficient evidence to support the jury’s finding that appellees “and their predecessors in privity of estate under whom they claim held the Property in question in peaceable and adverse possession.” Appellees concede that they “claim title in this case under Lillian Haliburton.” Appellants assert, however, that there is no evidence that Lillian Haliburton, appellees’ predecessor in privity of estate, intentionally or knowingly adversely possessed the property in question from her relatives, the Budde family.
In reviewing a no-evidence point, we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the disputed fact, and we disregard all evidence and inferences to the contrary. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Miller, 102 S.W.3d 706, 709 (Tex.2003). If more than a scintilla of evidence supports the finding, the verdict must be upheld. Id. More than a scintilla of evidence exists when the evidence supporting the finding, as a whole, “rises to a level that would enable reasonable and fair-minded people to differ in their conclusions.” Merrell Dow Pharms., Inc. v. Havner, 953 S.W.2d 706, 711 (Tex.1997).
Adverse possession means “an actual and visible appropriation of real property, commenced and continued under a claim of right that is inconsistent with and is hostile to the claim of another person.” Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 16.021(1) (Vernon 2002). Under this definition, the majority concludes that
It is simply not disputed that everyone believed the Haliburtons owned the garage and driveway that were built in part on lot 6, which they did not own and on which they did not pay taxes, and used the garage and driveway continuously for at least 15 years. This fact alone constitutes legally and factually sufficient evidence to sustain the jury’s finding.
(Emphasis added.) In support of its holding that the evidence was legally and factually sufficient to support the jury’s finding of adverse possession, the majority, citing Calfee v. Duke, 544 S.W.2d 640, 642 (Tex.1976), notes that “[t]he law is also well settled that adverse possession need not be intentional, so long as it is ‘visible, open, and notorious.’ ” (Emphasis added.)
However, in Calfee, the Texas Supreme Court expressly stated that “[n]o matter what the use and occupancy of the land may be, the possessor must intend to appropriate it.” 544 S.W.2d at 642 (emphasis added). As explained by the Court in Ellis v. Jansing, “[m]ere occupancy of land without any intent to appropriate it will not support the statute of limitations.” 620 S.W.2d 569, 571 (Tex.1981). Further,
*135[n]o matter how exclusive and hostile to the true owner the possession may be in appearance, it cannot be adverse unless accompanied by the intent on the part of the occupant to make it so. The naked possession unaccompanied with any claim of right will never constitute a bar.
Id. at 571-72 (quoting Orsborn v. Deep Rock Oil Corp., 153 Tex. 281, 267 S.W.2d 781, 787 (1954)).
In Ellis, the Court answered “the question of whether the testimony of [the occupant] that he bought the property [in question] thinking that the boundary was [a] concrete retaining wall and maintained it as part of his yard was sufficient to raise a fact issue of adverse possession.” 620 S.W.2d at 571. In that case, the occupant testified that he had never claimed or intended to claim any property other than that which was described in his deed, or what he thought was contained in his deed, and he had never intended to claim any property owned by abutting property owners. Id. The Court held that these facts were legally insufficient to sustain a claim of adverse possession. Id.
Here, the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s finding, establishes that the Haliburtons used the garage and driveway on the property in question and treated the property as if it were their own. However, there is nothing in the record to indicate that the Hali-burtons ever intended to claim any property from the Buddes that was actually owned by the Buddes, and such an intention cannot be assumed. Even if the evidence supported an inference that both the Buddes and the Haliburtons thought that the Haliburtons had purchased the property in question, this mutual mistake of fact, in the absence of any evidence that the Haliburtons ever claimed or intended to claim the property, is insufficient to raise a fact issue of adverse possession. See id.
Accordingly, I would grant appellants’ motion for rehearing, reverse the judgment of the trial court, and render judgment in favor of appellants.