Appellate Division:

Cooperative acquired land by adverse possession on dead end street which had been used as a private parking lot

DL Partners successfully established at trial that its client, a cooperative apartment corporation, had acquired by adverse possession one side of a private, dead end street which it continuously used as a small private parking lot for over 20 years.  The Appellate Division affirmed the trial court’s determination of adverse possession after DL Partners established that the manner of use complied with the elements of adverse possession.  In affirming, the Appellate Division rejected defendant’s “paper street rule” argument.  The case is significant because the parking lot was not enclosed by a fence or other physical barrier and thesubject property was open to the public.
Waterview Towers, Inc. v 2610 Cropsey Dev. Corp., 53 Misc.3d 1214(A), 2016 NY Slip Op 51649(U), aff’d, 2020 WL 1160786, 2020 NY Slip Op 01665 [2d Dept Mar. 11, 2020]