Alaska National Bank v. Linck
Supreme Court of Alaska
559 P.2d 1049 (Alaska 1977)
In 1927, John Chisholm conveyed a parcel of land by quitclaim deed to Charles Taylor, who later devised it to his widow, Eva Taylor; when Eva died in 1971, Alaska National Bank (defendant) became administrator of her estate. In 1944, however, Chisholm had also conveyed the same parcel to James Stewart in exchange for $2,000 paid to release a welfare lien and a promise to care for Chisholm for life. Stewart registered his title in 1946. Beginning in 1956 or 1957, Stewart planted a large garden on the land and, with his daughter Alaska Linck (plaintiff), built and maintained a barricade to block access to a nearby Boy Scout camp and posted no-hunting signs. Linck and her parents visited, inspected, and maintained the property regularly from 1957 through 1970, dealt with government agencies over easement requests as if they were the owners, and paid the property taxes for at least nineteen consecutive years. Eva Taylor left Alaska in 1946, never returned, and no evidence showed she or her heirs ever used or asserted control over the property.
Whether a claimant's visits, maintenance, exclusion of others, and payment of property taxes over many years, without continuous physical occupation, are sufficient to establish clear title to land by adverse possession.