Adams v. White’s Empirical Analysis
1972
Citation profile
19 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 19 later decisions — most recently May 2010
19 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on State Ex Rel. Edie v. Shain · Brown v. Wilson · Bridle Trail Association v. O'SHANICK · Hood v. M. F. A. Mutual Insurance Co. · Courtner v. Putnam
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““[I]f a defendant, even through ignorance and mistake of the true boundary, builds a fence which encroaches upon another, his possession will be adverse provided his intention is to hold and claim in all events the entire property that the fence enclosed. On the other hand, if a defendant locates the fence on what he recognizes and supposes to be the true line and only intends to claim to the true line whenever and wherever it might be ascertained, the possession is not adverse.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“The fact that one encroaches on his neighbor’s property by building a fence ... thinking the property is his, and that he had no intention of claiming any of his neighbor’s property, is not controlling on the question as to whether the possession is adverse. If it were, the protection of the statute would be limited to those who deliberately set out to steal their neighbor’s property.... If such were the law, then the man who innocently and inadvertently occupies and improves land beyond his true boundary line or, in other words, one who most needs and deserves the protection of the statute, would be left without protection. (Citations omitted.) “The better rule on the subject, is embodied in the doctrine that, in the absence of positive proof or unambiguous circumstances showing that a possession is or is not adverse, the exclusive possession and use of land are presumed to be adverse, it is not necessary to show an intention to hold and claim the property in spite of the fact that the legal title may be in another. The possession of one who holds property as his own is adverse to all the world, although he never heard of an adverse claim....” (quoting 80 A.L.R. 157 ,158). (Emphasis added)”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Schaumburg v. Heafey
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.