< Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 9.djvu
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470

HARVARD LAW REVIEW.

470

470 HARVARD LAW REVIEW.

His property is held by another under a claim of right; and he is subjected to the same privation as if the entry were made with full knowledge of its being unjustifiable." ^ The Maine court, however, announces an entirely different doc- trine as to the effect of a long occupancy of land where the fence has not stood on the true boundary. It says : *' In case of occu- pancy by mistake beyond a Hne capable of being ascertained, this intention to claim title to the extent of the occupancy must appear to be absolute, and not conditional, otherwise the possession will not be deemed adverse to the true owner. It must be an intention to claim title to all land within a certain boundary on the face of the earth, whether it shall be eventually found to be the correct one or not." Per Whitehouse, J.^ The position thus taken and maintained by the learned court of Maine appears to have commended itself elsewhere only in a few jurisdictions, notably in Iowa and in Kansas. We entertain a belief that the time shall come when it will be abandoned, as not consist- ent with the doctrine of adverse possession as heretofore generally understood and acted upon. Frank W. Hackett. 1 8 Conn. 445. 2 g^ Maine, 265.

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