Miller v. O'Leary

Citations

• 44 Wash. 172
• 87 P. 113
• 1906 Wash. LEXIS 807

Syllabus

<p>Adverse Possession — Claim of Right — Actual Possession — Evidence — Sufficiency. There is not sufficient evidence of actual possession, under claim of right, to the'north ten feet of a lot included in a plat by the mistake of an adjoining owner, where it appears that the grantee of the lot, in erecting buildings, abandoned work on the strip in dispute and occupied it only with a sidewalk used as an approach to buildings on the balance of the lot, that he paid taxes only on a fractional part of the lot, and the strip was used extensively by the public as a highway.</p> <p>Same — Construction of Sidewalk. The construction and use of a sidewalk across a ten-foot strip of a lot is not such a taking of possession of the entire strip as to give title by adverse possession.</p> <p>Same — Payment of Taxes — Good Faith. Where the grantor had no title to the north ten feet of a sixty-foot lot, the payment by his grantee of taxes for seven years upon all but the north six feet of the lot, appears to have been made through mistake, rather than under claim and color of title made in good faith to four feet of the ten-foot strip, as required by Bal. Code, §§ 5503, 5504, to gain title to vacant land by the payment of taxes.</p>