Chaplin v. Sanders

• Citation: 676 P.2d 431,100 Wn.2d 853
• Decision Date: 26 January 1984
• Docket Number: No. 49663-3,49663-3
• Parties: Kent Peter CHAPLIN, and Barbara Chaplin, husband and wife, and Kenneth E. Chaplin and Hazel Chaplin, his wife, Respondents, v. Peter F. SANDERS, and Patricia E. Sanders, husband and wife, and the marital community composed thereof, d/b/a Shady Glen Trailer Park, Petitioners.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Washington

Page 853

100 Wn.2d 853

676 P.2d 431

Kent Peter CHAPLIN, and Barbara Chaplin, husband and wife, and Kenneth E. Chaplin and Hazel Chaplin, his wife, Respondents, v. Peter F. SANDERS, and Patricia E. Sanders, husband and wife, and the marital community composed thereof, d/b/a

Shady Glen Trailer Park, Petitioners.

No. 49663-3.

Supreme Court of Washington,

En Banc.

Jan. 26, 1984.

Allendoerfer & Keithly, Inc., Gary Brandstetter, Snohomish, for petitioners.

Shields & Clarke, Michael A. Clarke, Everett, for respondents.

UTTER, Justice.

A judgment was entered by the trial court in favor of Peter and Patricia Sanders, petitioners herein, awarding a part of property claimed by them by virtue of adverse possession from their neighbors Kent and Barbara Chaplin and Kenneth and Hazel Chaplin. The Court of Appeals reversed, finding no "hostility" in Sanders' possession of the property. We reverse the Court of Appeals and hold in favor of petitioners on all aspects of their claim.

This case presents two issues relating to the doctrine of adverse possession. Does a claimant's actual notice of the true owner's interest in the land possessed negate the element of hostility? Does the true owner's actual knowledge of the claimant's use of his land satisfy the element of open and notorious? In light of the historical basis for the development of the adverse possession doctrine, we hold that the possessor's subjective belief whether the land possessed is or is not his own and his intent to dispossess or not dispossess another are irrelevant to a finding of hostility. We also hold that, when the true title owner knows of the possessor's adverse use throughout the duration of the statutory period, the element of open and notorious is satisfied.

I

Petitioners Peter and Patricia Sanders, d/b/a Shady Glen Trailer Park, are record title owners of property in Snohomish County. Their property adjoins property owned by respondents Kent and Barbara Chaplin and Kenneth and Hazel Chaplin. The Chaplin property is to the east of the Sanders' property. This action concerns a dispute over a strip of land owned of record by the Chaplins, forming the western portion of their property and bordering the Sanders' eastern boundary line.

In 1957 or 1958, Mr. and Mrs. Hibbard, the Sanders' predecessors in interest, decided to clear their land of woods and overgrowth and set up a trailer park (hereinafter the western parcel). There was no obvious boundary between the western and eastern parcels, so Mr. Hibbard cleared the land up to a deep drainage ditch and opened his park. ¹ He, further, installed a road for purposes of ingress and egress to the park.

In 1960, Mr. McMurray, then owner of the eastern parcel, had a survey conducted whereupon he discovered the true boundary. He then informed the Hibbards that their driveway encroached upon his land. Two years later, the Hibbards sold their parcel to the Gilberts. The 1962 Hibbard-Gilbert recorded contract of sale contained the following provision:

The purchaser here has been advised that the existing blacktop road used by the trailer park encroaches on the adjoining property by approximately 20 feet and purchaser agrees that no claim will be made by him for any ownership of said 20 foot strip of property; and, in the event the owner of the adjoining property should remove blacktop, no claim will be made by the purchaser herein. Purchaser agrees to remove blacktop if requested to do so.

In 1967, the western parcel was sold to a Mr. French, who had no actual notice of the true boundary line. The western parcel changed hands once again before the Sanders purchased it in 1976. None of these subsequent owners were made aware that their road encroached on the eastern parcel; but were informed rather casually that the boundary was the drainage ditch. The Sanders were given actual notice of the contract provision, but purportedly mistook the road to which it referred.

Since its initial development in 1958, there was little change in the use of the western parcel. The road remained in continuous use in connection with the trailer park. The area between the road and the drainage ditch was also used by trailer park residents for parking, storage, garbage removal and picnicking. Grass was mowed up to the drainage ditch and flowers were planted in the area by trailer personnel and tenants. In the spring of 1978, the Sanders installed underground wiring and surface power poles in the area between the roadway and the drainage ditch.

In May of 1978, the Chaplins purchased the still undeveloped eastern parcel without the benefit of a survey. Soon thereafter they contacted an architectural consultant for the purpose of designing commercial buildings for their property. They had a survey conducted for this purpose and discovered the Sanders' encroachments. Despite this evidence, which indicated that the Sanders claimed some interest in the land, the Chaplins secured a rezone to a more intensive commercial classification and instructed the architectural engineers to design buildings for the development based on the true survey line. They then brought this action to quiet title to the disputed portion and sought damages for increased construction costs due to the delay necessitated by this action.

The trial court determined that 1967, the date of acquisition by the Sanders' predecessor Mr. French, was the appropriate time from which to compute the 10-year period necessary to establish adverse possession. It then found that the Sanders had satisfied each element of adverse possession with regard to the road and its 3-foot shoulder (Parcel A), and quieted title in them to this portion. It found that the Sanders had not satisfied their burden of proving open and notorious possession with regard to the property between the roadway and the ditch (Parcel B) and quieted title to this portion in the Chaplins. The trial court then issued a mandatory injunction requiring the Sanders to remove their underground wiring and surface power poles at an estimated cost of $20,000.

The Court of Appeals found that, due to the Sanders' actual notice of McMurray's interest, the requirement of hostility had not been satisfied for either parcel. It therefore reversed the trial court's holding with respect to Parcel A, and remanded the cause with directions to quiet title in the Chaplins.

II

A.

In order to establish a claim of adverse possession, the possession must be: 1) exclusive, 2) actual and uninterrupted, 3) open and notorious and 4) hostile and under a claim of right made in good faith. Peeples v. Port of Bellingham, 93 Wash.2d 766, 613 P.2d 1128 (1980); Skansi v. Novak, 84 Wash. 39, 146 P. 160 (1915). The period throughout which these elements must concurrently exist is 10 years. RCW 4.16.020. Hostility, as defined by this court, "does not import enmity or ill-will, but rather imports that the claimant is in possession as owner, in contradistinction to holding in recognition of or subordination to the true owner." King v. Bassindale, 127 Wash. 189, 192, 220 P. 777 (1923). We have traditionally treated the hostility and claim of right requirements as one and the same. Bowden-Gazzam Co. v. Hogan, 22 Wash.2d 27, 154 P.2d 285 (1944).

Although the definition of hostility has remained fairly constant throughout this last century, the import we have attributed to this definition has varied. For example, in King v. Bassindale, supra, we held that, because the claimant believed the land to be his own and treated it as such, his possession was hostile as to the rest of the world. In contrast, in Bowden-Gazzam Co. v. Hogan, supra, we held that an adverse user who appropriated land knowing it was not his own, but who used it as his own for over the statutory period, was entitled to title by adverse possession. Our reasoning was that the claimant's subjective belief as to who owned the land was irrelevant so long as he intended to claim the land as his own. Yet, in dicta, we affirmed the age-old requirement that the claimant neither recognize a superior interest nor claim in bad faith. Our interpretation of this definition was further muddied in Brown v. Hubbard, 42 Wash.2d 867, 259 P.2d 391 (1953) wherein the claimant had mistakenly included a portion of his neighbor's property when fencing his own land. Although he had openly claimed and used the land as his own for well over the statutory period, we held that he had never formed the requisite hostile intent because he would not have claimed the land as his own had he known it belonged to his neighbor.

Thus, in Bassindale we required the claimant to possess a good faith belief that the land possessed was his own, in Hogan we deemed the claimant's belief irrelevant and in Hubbard we required the claimant to possess the unrighteous intent to deprive the true owner of his land. Shortly after Hubbard we set forth a test for hostility which took much of the emphasis off of the claimant's subjective intent. O'Brien v. Schultz, 45 Wash.2d 769, 278 P.2d 322 (1954).

In O'Brien, we observed that "[c]ourts have had considerable difficulty in determining 'intention' in adverse possession cases, because intention may be evidenced (1) by the acts of a party, or (2) by his declarations." O'Brien, at 780, 278 P.2d 322. We noted that, in Washington,

the acts of the user most frequently control. If his acts clearly evince an intention to claim land as its owner, a general declaration by the user that he did not intend to claim another's land will not prove lack of intention. But a specific declaration by a user that he knew a fence was not the boundary and that he agreed to consider it as a temporary barrier will prove lack of intention. And if his acts are equivocal or do not clearly evince his intention to claim as owner, his declaration that he did not intend to take another's land, though not conclusive proof of lack of intention, may be considered in determining his intention while...