Court Opinion

ID: 9665973
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:01:00.813926+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:21.447723
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Justice,
concurring in the result.
I concur in the result reached in the majority opinion, but I am unconvinced by the rationale of the majority’s analysis of the term “valuable consideration.” However, I would not reach that question for I believe it is obvious that Ida and Willie could not have been good-faith purchasers in 1951, regardless of the consideration. As the majority opinion notes, the plaintiffs and their predecessors in interest farmed the land prior to 1936; they have paid the property taxes and satisfied a mortgage placed on the property by Kari; the defendants have not been in possession nor have they received any of the rents and profits from the land.
Although I would not abandon the “co-tenant in possession” rule recently affirmed in Nelson v. Christianson, 343 N.W.2d 375 (N.D.1984), insofar as adverse possession is concerned, it is inconceivable to me that in 1951 Ida and Willie were under no obligation to inquire why Julia was not in possession and received none of the rents and profits from the land. Their position did not improve. They neglected to ask questions for more than 30 years thereafter even though they received no rents and profits from the land, at least the surface thereof. To rely on the joint-tenancy exception under these circumstances is incredible.