Defendant's Attorney:

Description: Hastings, Minnesota civil litigation lawyers represented the parties in a real property dispute.

The Sawyers and the Boland Trustees dispute ownership of an 8.5' by 117' strip of land on the east side of the Boland Trustees' property and the west side of the Sawyers' property (the Adverse Possession Parcel).

In 1966, the Boland family acquired property on Lake Marion (the Boland Parcel). In 1973, a couple purchased the adjacent property to the east (the Sawyer Parcel). After moving in, the couple planted spruce trees on the Sawyer Parcel, near the border of the Boland Parcel. A neighbor east of the Sawyer Parcel testified that the branches of the spruce trees "were down like they were touching the ground" and extended "5 feet on each side." Subsequent owners of the Sawyer Parcel testified that they put down mulch around the base of the trees, picked weeds, trimmed branches, and planted a garden under the trees.

Witnesses for the Boland Trustees testified about the Bolands parking boats and cars near a slope under the tree branches. In 2016, the Bolands built a boulder retaining wall that bordered the garden space under the spruce trees' branches on their property.

The Sawyers purchased the parcel in July 2018. The Sawyers added a trellis and pavers in the area below the trees. The Sawyers also gardened the area. In May 2022, Kathryn Boland Weston told Wendy Sawyer that the Adverse Possession Parcel belonged to the Bolands. Kathryn Boland Weston asked that the trellis and pavers be removed from the Adverse Possession Parcel.

The Sawyers sued the Boland Trustees, asserting claims of adverse possession and trespass, and seeking an injunction. The Boland Trustees answered and asserted counterclaims for a declaratory judgment, quiet title, ejectment, trespass, nuisance, slander of title, and tortious interference with prospective business advantage. The Sawyers gave the Boland Trustees notice that the Sawyers would be filing a motion for sanctions on the nuisance, slander of title, and tortious interference counterclaims. The Boland Trustees later withdrew their tortious interference claim.


* * *

The district court found that the planting of the spruce trees created an exclusive use of the Modified Adverse Possession Parcel because the branches made the area below them "of almost no utility and largely unreachable[.]" The court found that the trees prevented the Bolands from using the Modified Adverse Possession Parcel and that the current and previous Sawyer Parcel owners maintained the area by trimming the branches, mowing the lawn, and gardening the area. As the district court found, the evidence of the Sawyers' and previous owners' use of the area constituted a visible indication of the "intention of permanent occupation and appropriation." In re Reg. Title in St. Louis County, 147 N.W. 655, 657 (Minn. 1914). The district court did not clearly err in finding that the use of the Modified Adverse Possession Parcel was exclusive.[1]

* * *

Legal issue Can a property owner gain title to a portion of a neighbor's land through adverse possession?

Key Phrases Adverse possession claim. District court findings. Modified Adverse Possession Parcel. Prevailing party determination. Motion for sanctions.

Outcome: Affirmed

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

Comments: