# Burns v. Mitchell

> Superior Court of Pennsylvania · December 28, 1977 · 252 Pa. Super. 257

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9757070

## Case

- **Full name:** Goldie BURNS, Appellant, v. Paul v. MITCHELL and Harriette K. Mitchell, His Wife, Appellees
- **Court:** Superior Court of Pennsylvania
- **Decided:** December 28, 1977
- **Citations:** 252 Pa. Super. 257; 381 A.2d 487; 1977 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2888
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Spaeth
- **Judges:** Jacobs, Hoffman, Cercone, Price, Van Voort Spaeth, Spaeth
- **Cited by:** 18 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9757070

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that title by adverse possession may mature where possession has been claimed under a mistaken belief of ownership; hostile intent not necessary

## Opinion text

SPAETH, Judge,
concurring:
I agree with the majority that the service of process in the appellees' quiet title action was ineffective to bind appellant. In addition, however, I think that in questioning whether appellant fulfilled the requirements for adverse possession, the majority should acknowledge a long established rule: a person in possession of land has a claim to it that is superior to that of any other claimant except the rightful owner. Green v. Kellum, 23 Pa. 254 (1854), Hoey v. Furman, 1 Pa. 295, 300 (1845), Garlock v. Fulton County, 116 Pa.Super. 50 , 176 A. 38 (1935); 3 Am.Jur.2d § 237. Here, the rightful owners (prior to the execution of the quit claim deed) were the heirs of the 1917 grantor, who mistakenly granted ten feet less than he thought he was granting, or anyone who may have established adverse possession before appellant herself took possession of the land. Appellees may not use jus tertii, the right of a third party, to get appellant out, and cannot win on any other basis except adverse possession of their own, which they never had.
HOFFMAN, J., joins in this opinion.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9757070. Public record. Not legal advice.