Lott v. Muldoon Road Baptist Church, Inc.
Supreme Court of Alaska
466 P.2d 815 (1970)
Following her divorce, Lott (plaintiff) retained a tract of land that her ex-husband Garland later surveyed, platted, and (without her involvement) conveyed to a title company as loan security, which then reconveyed the platted land back to Garland by deed; Garland leased the land to a church, which took immediate possession and later transferred to Muldoon (defendant) via an administrator's deed after Garland's death. Lott sued to eject Muldoon and quiet title over a decade later, and the trial court found she had no interest in the property.
Whether a claimant establishes adverse possession under color of title if he shows uninterrupted adverse notorious possession of real property for seven years or more under a written instrument that purports, but may not be effective, to pass title to him.