In 1965, a married couple purchased a parcel of ground along with a “notch” of land to the east of the parcel to expand an existing garage. The property owners began to use a strip of ground east of the newly remodeled garage until 2006. They hauled-in eleven tons of dirt into the area east of the garage to install and level a driveway, planted nearly $20,000 of groundcover and plants to prevent erosion, and openly accessed the area several times per week. When the neighbors to the east entered into a real estate contract in 2005, the buyers of the parcel objected to the use of the strip of land to the east of the owner’s garage. The new neighbors began to store personal property in the northern part of the disputed area. The couple began complaining about the neighbor intentionally cutting down and damaging trees on the disputed area.
In October 2006, the couple filed a petition to quiet title to the strip east of the garage and claimed that the neighbor was trespassing. The trial court entered a temporary injunction, prohibiting the neighbor from entering the disputed area. During the pendency of the injunction, the owner claimed that the neighbor intentionally entered the property, using profanities and threatening bodily harm. Finally, the trial court came to a conclusion in the case and awarded possession of the disputed parcel to the east of the garage to the couple. The parcel to the north where both parties stored items was treated differently. That property remained the property of the neighbor. Additionally, the trial court awarded the couple $15,000 damages for the trees that were damaged and cut down along with attorney fees.
On appeal, the court affirmed. In Iowa, a claim of adverse possession (acquiring title to property after possessing the property in a hostile, open, exclusive and continual way, under a claim of right and color of title, for at least ten years) must be established by clear and positive evidence. Continuous use alone is not enough to establish adverse possession. The couple was able to show that they met the requirements for ten years on the strip of property east of the garage. Mills v. Robinson, No. 9-579/08-0739 (Iowa Ct. App., Sep. 2, 2009)