Adverse Possession

Sims v Town of New Chicago, 842 NE2d 830 (Ind Ct App 2006).

Facts: A trust company owned real estate abutting a city street. The city placed guardrails on the street near the trust company's building. The trustees believed that the erected barriers interfered with their right to use part of the city street by prescriptive easement. The trustees asserted that they had a prescriptive easement because they enjoyed continuous and notorious possession for over twenty years of part of the street.

The trustees argued that the city was encroaching on its prescriptive easement and brought a quiet title action for injunctive relief. Relying on precedent, the trial court held that a prescriptive easement could not be acquired against the government unless a statute explicitly allows for it.

Holding: Affirmed. The court of appeals recognized that under common law a prescriptive easement could not be acquired against the King. Further, the court reaffirmed the general rule that prescriptive rights cannot be obtained against property that is dedicated for a public interest.

Hence, because legislative action had not changed the general common law rule, the trustees' claim of a prescriptive easement against the city could not stand. The only time a prescriptive easement can be obtained against the government is if there is a statute that explicitly allows for one.

© ATG atgc0701vol31
 

Print this page