Both Washington’s House and Senate have recently overwhelmingly adopted newly proposed sections to alter adverse possession, the primary law used to adjudicate land disputes. One problem, the House and Senate versions are similar with respect to two rather insignificant sections, but completely different with respect to the purport of this bill, which is to make the law of adverse possession
ESHB 1026
WA’s Adverse Possession Bill: The State of our Dis-Union Address
The vast majority of my posts for the last couple months have been Treatment Level – High. However, today Washington’s Senate exeded vast majority status by unanimously voting to adopt Washington’s Adverse Possession Bill. Great News! … Right?
Well to be honest, I’m not so sure. My uncertainty stems from the fact that the House, which…
ESHB 1026 Post Senate Judiciary: Strike One! Ball One!
The Senate Judiciary Committee gave ESHB 1026 an executive hearing and passed it out of committee today. Not hard to see what happened. Particularly when supplemented with a viewing of the hearing on Washington’s equivalent of C-span here.
[Note: to view only adverse possession’s ESHB 1026’s executive session, select the March 25th date and then scroll into the…
Scrap Good Faith & Focus on Physical Boundary Line Manipulation?
I think it is important to create more clarity in adverse possession law. While I have advocated for Good Faith and I have also considered whether we should look at who took possession first between the adverse possessor and the title holder here. As I really think the situation through, the most important point is…
Good Faith: Then & (Hopefully) Now
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding ESHB 1026. In that testimony and in my follow-up answers to questions posed by Judiciary Committee Chairman Senator Adam Kline (D) – 37th Legislative District and Senator Mike Carrell (R) – 28th Legislative District, I advocated for the addition of…
Good Faith Element v. Clear, Cogent, and Convincing Evidence
In my January 2011 Bar News article A Good Faith Attack on Land Thieves, I suggested that the best method to attempt to eliminate land theft allowed under the current laws would be to add the element of Good Faith to adverse possession’s 10 year common law statutory interpretation of RCW 4.16.020.
Well, today at…
Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1026 Passes: 95 Yeas – 1 Nays – 0 Absent – 2 Excused
Earlier today, after improving Adverse Possession Substitute House Bill 1026 by rightfully vesting the power to determine equity with the Courts, as opposed to fact finders, Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1026 was passed handily. For those who are curious, please find the roll call here and overall bill history here. Now onward to the Senate.