Ray v. Beacon Hudson Mountain Corp.
Court of Appeals of New York
666 N.E.2d 532 (1996)
Ray (plaintiff) occupied a cottage roughly one month per year from 1963 to 1988 in a now-defunct seasonal resort community where all neighboring structures had been abandoned, vandalized, or destroyed; during his periods away, Ray paid property taxes, maintained fire insurance, installed telephone and electric service, posted 'No Trespassing' signs, secured the property with bars, shutters, and padlocks, and personally apprehended and had prosecuted several vandals. Ray sued Beacon Hudson Mountain Corp. (defendant), the property's recorded owner, to quiet title through adverse possession; the trial court found his occupancy sufficiently continuous over 25 years, but the Appellate Division reversed, holding one-month annual occupancy gave inadequate notice of an adverse claim, and Ray appealed.
Whether possession, for purposes of adverse possession, must be absolutely continuous without interruption.