Summary
In Seaboard, Seaboard Air Line Railway Company (Seaboard Air) appealed a decree by the chancellor that Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company (Atlantic Coast) acquired by adverse possession under color of title "legal title to the land as against [Seaboard Air], except as to the space occupied by the track and roadbed of what is usually known as the T. & J. Railroad Crossing."
Summary of this case from Whispell Foreign Cars, Inc. v. United StatesOpinion
No. DD-284.
December 14, 1977. Rehearing Denied February 1, 1978.
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Clay County, R. Hudson Olliff, J.
Gerald G. Alexander, Orange Park, for appellants.
James M. McLean, of Rogers, Towers, Bailey, Jones Gay, Jacksonville, for appellee.
The record titleholders to certain land in Clay County appeal from a judgment holding that the appellee railroad obtained title by adverse possession, without color of title, to a strip along one boundary of the tract. While the record supports the trial court's judgment concerning a small parcel actually occupied by the railroad's roadbed, the record does not support the railroad's claim to a wider strip parallel to its track, the boundary of which is marked not by a substantial enclosure but only by power poles and lines on appellants' land. Section 95.18, Florida Statutes (1975); Downing v. Bird, 100 So.2d 57 (Fla. 1958). The case will be remanded for entry of a conforming judgment.
REVERSED.
ERVIN, J., concurs.
RAWLS, Acting C.J., dissents.
In my opinion, there was competent, substantial evidence to support the trial judge's finding that appellee Seaboard acquired the disputed property by adverse possession. Kiser v. Howard, 133 So.2d 746 (Fla. 1st DCA 1961).