Brown v. Gobble
West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals
474 S.E.2d 489 (W. Va. 1996)
A narrow strip of land technically owned by the Browns (plaintiffs) sat enclosed by a fence on the Gobbles' (defendants') side of the property line; the prior owners, the Fletchers, and then the Gobbles after buying the property in 1985, had continuously used and maintained the strip as their own since 1978. When the Browns tried to build a road on the strip in 1994, the Gobbles claimed ownership through adverse possession, but their own individual possession fell short of the state's ten-year statutory period; the trial court ruled for the Browns, and the Gobbles appealed.
Whether a party asserting adverse possession may add, or "tack on," the years a predecessor in title adversely possessed the land to satisfy the statutory time-period requirement.