Me. Rev. Stat. » Title 14
Maine Revised Statutes

Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 14, § 815 (2026)

Forty years' possession bars action for recovery of land

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No real or mixed action for the recovery of lands shall be commenced or maintained against any person in possession thereof, when such person or those under whom he claims have been in actual possession for more than 40 years, claiming to hold them by adverse, open, peaceable, notorious and exclusive possession, in their own right.  
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4 cases, 1979–2012 · leading case: Richards Realty Co. v. Inhabitants of Town of Castle Hill, 406 A.2d 412 (Me. 1979).
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Richards Realty Co. v. Inhabitants of Town of Castle Hill, 406 A.2d 412 (Me. 1979). · cites it 2× “” These were the words that brought into play the “forty years’ possession bar” provided by 14 M.R.S.A. § 815 1 on which the presiding Justice relied to conclude that as a matter of law plaintiff’s action asserting title to land against defendant Town was “barred.”
Gay v. Dube, 2012 ME 30, 39 A.3d 52. “1979) (addressing an adverse possession claim pursuant to 14 M.R.S. § 815 (2011)). If it were otherwise, and the party asserting adverse possession failed in its proof, the court would be unable to adjudicate the opposing party’s claim for declaratory relief.”
State v. Kelly, 606 A.2d 786 (Me. 1992). · cites it 2× “Kelly’s answer raised a single defense: a claim of ownership by adverse possession pursuant to 14 M.R.S.A. § 815 (1980). 3 At the trial’s conclusion, the motions of both parties for directed verdicts were denied.”
Weinstein v. Sanborn, 741 A.2d 459 (Me. 1999). “2d at 205 (requiring that possession be “actual, open, notorious, under a claim of right, continuous and exclusive for a period of at least 20 years” to satisfy common law adverse possession); 14 M.R.S.A. § 815 (1980) (requiring “actual .”
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