Legal Environment of Adverse Possession on Forestland and Empirical Evidence from the Past 200 Years

Abstract

Private forestland has become more fragmented in the United States. Management activities on forestland are usually infrequent compared with those on other types of land (e.g., farmland), which makes forestland prone to the claim of adverse possession. In this study, the legal environment of adverse possession as a method of acquiring title to forestland in the United States is examined. Statutes in fifty states as of November 2021 and 243 published legal cases from 1802 to 2021 are identified and analyzed. Content analysis reveals that state statutes have defined seventy-seven statutory periods, with an average of thirteen years. Empirical evidence from the cases discloses that quiet-title action has been the dominant lawsuit type, the activities by adverse possessors on forestland are mainly related to timber and tax payment, and actual use and the continuous period of possession are the most commonly examined elements. An adverse possessor without any title to the disputed land can use forestland, but the probability of receiving a title is small. When forest landowners have a portion of property rights of the disputed land, they have extensively used adverse possession as a legal tool to clean the title. Study Implications For adverse possession on forestland, statutory and common laws have defined similar fundamentals through the statutes in 50 states and 243 cases published over 200 years. The doctrine of adverse possession is a double-edged sword. If a landowner does not manage the land for an extended period, the law allows the title to be claimed by another person who can use the land better for society. Nevertheless, the legal requirements are high, and the probability of receiving a title through naked possession is low. Forest landowners with defective titles have also widely used the law to clean their titles.