Tioga Coal Co. v. Supermarkets General Corp.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court
546 A.2d 1 (1988)
Facts
Agate Street was a strip of land located on Supermarket General Corporation’s (SGC) (defendant) property and bordering Tioga Coal Company’s (plaintiff) property. In 1948, Tioga locked the gate to Agate Street and maintained the lock until 1978, when the gate was removed. Tioga sued SGC seeking to take title to Agate Street by adverse possession. The trial court found that Tioga used the entirety of Agate Street for thirty years and that its possession of Agate Street was actual, open, notorious, exclusive, and continuous for a period greater than the required 21 years. However, the court found that Tioga’s possession of Agate Street was not hostile to the true owner of the land because Tioga had believed the land belonged to the city. Tioga appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Flaherty, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 705,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 44,300 briefs, keyed to 983 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
