Hodge v. Snider

• Decision Date: 22 August 1986
• Citation: 495 So.2d 539
• Parties: Scarlett Emfinger HODGE, et al. v. David R. SNIDER and Mable Snider. 84-53.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Page 539

495 So.2d 539

Scarlett Emfinger HODGE, et al. v. David R. SNIDER and Mable Snider.

84-53.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

Aug. 22, 1986.

James W. Harris, Tuscaloosa, for appellants.

Olin Zeanah and Steve Henry of Zeanah & Hust, Tuscaloosa, for appellees.

ALMON, Justice.

This is a boundary line dispute presented to the trial court ore tenus. The court determined that the defendants, David and Mable Snider, had been in open, continuous, exclusive, actual, hostile, notorious, and adverse possession of the subject property since February 17, 1962, which was more than 10 years before the plaintiff, Scarlett Emfinger Hodge, and her former husband, Thomas Emfinger, acquired title to or possession of the coterminous property, and more than 20 years before the present dispute arose. The trial court, in determining that the Sniders had acquired title by adverse possession, held that the true boundary was marked by a fence erected by Thomas Emfinger in 1975.

Scarlett Emfinger Hodge, individually and as trustee for her minor children, contends that the trial court erred in finding that the Sniders had adversely possessed the disputed strip of property because, she contends, such finding was contrary to the weight of the evidence and the law. She argues specifically that the Sniders did not show the exact boundaries they were claiming and that their possession was not hostile, exclusive, continuous, open, or notorious, as is required for adverse possession or prescription. Hodge further argues that every presumption is in favor of the holder of legal title and that the trial court's findings are due to be reversed as being palpably erroneous and manifestly unjust.

The Sniders acquired their property by deed on February 17, 1962, from Walter B. Boyd, who was also the Emfingers' grantor. Boyd testified that when he sold the property to the Sniders he pointed out the boundaries of the property, including the western boundary, which is now in dispute, and noted that a telephone pole was erected on that boundary. Boyd continued to live on the property that he later sold to the Emfingers. He testified that after the sale of the property to the Sniders, both he and the Sniders abided by the line that he had pointed out for over 10 years before he sold the property to the Emfingers. Boyd further testified that he pointed out the same line to the Emfingers when he sold them the property in 1972, and that Mr. Emfinger later erected the fence on this line.

The...