Howard v. Kunto
Court of Appeals of Washington
477 P.2d 210 (1970)
Facts
In 1932, McCall had a house on some land. His record title erroneously described his tract to be the 50-foot tract immediately to the west of his. This erroneous deed passed several times over the years, including to Miller. Miller built a dock on the misdeeded property. In 1959, Miller conveyed the erroneous deed to Kunto (defendant), who took possession of the mis-described plot of land. In 1960, Howard (plaintiff) ordered a survey of the area and discovered that he and several of his neighbors were occupying plots of land that were not the plots described in their respective deeds: Howard actually owned record title to the land occupied by Moyer, and Moyer owned record title to land occupied by Kunto. Howard and Moyer conveyed their record deeds to each other, which resulted in Howard holding record title to the land occupied by Kunto. Howard then brought suit to quiet title on the land occupied by Kunto (record owned by Howard) in Howard. Before this time, no one had ever challenged the ownership of the land that Kunto occupied. The trial court held that Kunto, having occupied the property for less than a year, had not satisfied the requirements for adverse possession, and thus the land belonged to Howard. Kunto appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Pearson, J.)
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