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QUEENSBURY---Adverse possession allows a person to claim ownership of land he or she maintains for 10 years without objection from the original property owner.
This 200-year-old law will be the subject of litigation to be heard by the state's highest court in regard to a property dispute between neighbors involving a 5,800 square foot piece of land in the Town of Queensbury.
The Court of Appeals has agreed to hear a legal battle between Denise and Paul Przybylo of 11 Butternut Hill Drive in Queensbury and their neighbor G. Scott Walling, a retired attorney.
The Przybylos bought a vacant lot on Butternut Hill Drive in 1989 and built their residence in 1994. However, because they didn't obtain a mortgage and because their was no requirement to do so, they didn't have the property surveyed.
Relations between the Przybylos and Walling deteriorated in 2003 and they began to file counter-complaints against each other about barking dogs and other matters that took them into Queensbury Town Court for resolution.
The Przybylos decided to plant a row of trees on the property line to shield themselves from Walling which necessitated having the property surveyed. At that time, the Przybylos learned that the 5,800 wedge of land was on their property and that they had been paying taxes on it but they didn't know they owned it. Walling claimed that because he had been mowing and maintaining the piece of land since 1986 that he owned it by virtue of adverse possession. Walling said he didn't know he didn't own it, he was basing the boundary line on a piece of orange survey tape on a tree.
The court battle began with Przybylos trying to get their property back. Even though Przybylos said that Walling clearly knew where the property line was because he'd had his property surveyed in 1986, they lost in court, including at the state Appellate Division where Walling worked for 14 years.
Walling says the Przybylos have no recourse in getting their property back because they failed to take action to claim the property for over 10 years and therefore it's his by him exercising his "squatter's rights".
The state's adverse possession law is also the subject of a bill drafted by Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward (R-Willsboro) to amend the law to stipulate that a person with a survey of their own land cannot claim adverse possession against a neighbor such as Walling did. To date, Sayward has no co-sponsorship of the bill from the Democratic majority.
It is unknown when the Court of Appeals could hand down a decision in the matter.
12-19-05
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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