## Facts

- Samuel H. and Estella (also referred to as Lillian) Wells owned 2025 Flagler Place, N.W., Washington, D.C., as tenants by the entirety; after Samuel’s death, Mrs. Wells became sole owner.
- In November 1955, Mrs. Wells leased the property to Blanche Smith, who initially paid $60 per month plus utilities and water.
- After the first year, the parties agreed Smith would pay expenses associated with the house and property and make needed repairs in lieu of rent; later Smith also agreed to pay real estate taxes.
- Mrs. Wells died testate in 1960, leaving the residuary estate to Wilbert T. Jenkins and Francis Wells; the will did not specifically describe the property.
- Smith remained in possession after Wells’s death, continued paying utilities and real estate taxes, performed maintenance, and made improvements.
- Smith sent correspondence to a devisee acknowledging she was living in Wells’s home and attempting to notify him of Wells’s death; the letter was returned as undeliverable.
- In 1985, Smith (and later her estate) sued to quiet title by adverse possession under a 15-year limitations period; the Wells estate asserted Smith’s possession remained permissive.

## Issues

1. Whether an occupant who entered possession under a lease proved “hostile” possession sufficient for adverse possession after the owner’s death and without a new lease.
2. Whether summary judgment for the claimant was proper on the record concerning hostility, and, if factual development was impossible, whether the appellate court could resolve hostility as a matter of law.

## Decision

- The District of Columbia Court of Appeals reversed the summary judgment that had awarded title to the Smith estate by adverse possession.
- The court held the record supported only one conclusion: Smith failed to prove adverse possession because hostility was not established.
- The court did not remand, concluding further proceedings would be futile because the material witnesses were deceased and the evidentiary record on hostility was complete.

## Legal Principles

- Adverse possession requires actual, open and notorious, exclusive, continuous, and hostile possession (under claim of right) for the statutory period.
- When possession begins permissively (including as a tenant), it is presumed to remain permissive unless the possessor clearly and unequivocally repudiates the owner’s title in a manner communicated to the owner or so evident the owner is charged with notice.
- Payment of taxes, maintenance, repairs, and improvements do not establish hostility when those acts are consistent with the permissive arrangement under which possession began.
- The owner’s death, without more, does not convert a tenant’s permissive possession into hostile possession.
- On a complete record where no further factual development is possible, hostility may be resolved as a question of law rather than remanded for factfinding.

## Conclusion

Because Smith entered and remained in possession under an arrangement consistent with a lease-like permission and never clearly repudiated the owners’ title with notice to the heirs, her continued occupancy—despite paying taxes, maintaining, and improving the property—did not satisfy the hostility element, and title did not pass by adverse possession.


Estate of Wells v. Estate of Smith, 576 A.2d 707 (D.C. 1990)