Tavares v. Beck

OPINION

In these two consolidated nonjury cases, a Superior Court trial justice found insufficient evidence to establish adverse possession. He then entered judgment in favor of the defendant, Horace P. Beck (Beck), the record-title holder of three adjacent parcels of mostly undeveloped property located on the Little Compton-Tiverton border (the property). The plaintiffs, Lawrence P. Tavares and Edna M. Tavares (the Tavareses or claimants), who are the adverse possessors manqué, appeal from this judgment.

We conclude that the trial justice misconstrued the claim-of-right doctrine when he ruled…