Adverse Possession
Acquiring title by possession that is open, notorious, continuous, hostile, and exclusive for the statutory period.
Examiners build the fact pattern so one element fails, and the wrong answers ignore it. The classic tell is a sentence granting permission (“the owner let her cross”): permissive use is licensed, not hostile, so the clock never starts. Watch the disability tolling trick — minority, insanity, or imprisonment tolls only if it existed when the cause of action accrued; a disability arising later never tolls, and disabilities don’t stack. Under color of title (a defective deed), constructive adverse possession reaches the whole described parcel even if she occupied only part — but never land another party actually holds.
The sharpest trap confuses this with a prescriptive easement: prescription drops the exclusivity element and yields only a non-possessory right to use, never title, so a shared driveway gives an easement, not ownership. Distinguish the possessor’s resulting fee simple (full possessory title) from that limited interest. Tacking demands privity — a voluntary transfer (deed, will, descent); an ouster is hostile, not voluntary, so it gives nothing to tack.
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