## Facts

- Virginia Carpenter bought and occupied a residential lot in Des Moines in 1951; the adjacent undeveloped tract to the north was owned by others at all relevant times.
- The dispute concerned a 60-by-125-foot strip on the south portion of the northern tract, immediately beyond Carpenter’s northern boundary.
- When Carpenter moved in, the northern tract was a cornfield; Carpenter knew her lot’s measured dimensions and knew the cornfield was not part of her property.
- Beginning in the early 1950s, Carpenter cleared brush/debris from the strip, planted grass and shrubs, extended her driveway onto it, and later placed a propane tank there.
- In 1978, investors including Charles and Edith Ruperto and Tom McCormick acquired the northern tract; attempts to resolve the boundary dispute failed.
- Carpenter sued to quiet title to the strip, claiming ownership by adverse possession based on decades of use.

## Issues

1. Whether Carpenter proved adverse possession of the disputed strip under Iowa law, including possession under a good-faith “claim of right” for the statutory period.
2. Whether defendants’ cross-appeal from the portion of the decree granting Carpenter limited equitable relief was timely under the appellate rules.

## Decision

- The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Carpenter’s adverse possession claim.
- The court held Carpenter did not possess the strip under a good-faith claim of right because she knew the land belonged to someone else and did not act under mistake, color of title, or a bona fide belief of ownership.
- The court dismissed defendants’ cross-appeal for lack of jurisdiction because it was filed more than five days after the notice of appeal was filed with the district court clerk.

## Legal Principles

- To establish adverse possession in Iowa, the claimant must prove actual, open, notorious, exclusive, hostile, and continuous possession for at least ten years, and possession under a claim of right or color of title.
- “Claim of right” requires good faith: the possessor must in good faith believe they have some right or title to the land occupied.
- A party who knowingly occupies another’s land as a trespasser cannot satisfy the claim-of-right requirement for adverse possession.
- The time to file a cross-appeal runs from the date the notice of appeal is filed with the district court clerk, not from the date the notice is received by opposing counsel.

## Conclusion

The court rejected adverse possession where the claimant’s long-term occupation was undertaken with knowledge of another’s ownership, confirming that good faith is required for a claim of right in Iowa, and it dismissed an untimely cross-appeal because the filing deadline is triggered by the clerk’s filing of the notice of appeal.


Carpenter v. Ruperto, 315 N.W.2d 782 (Iowa 1982)