No person or corporation shall ever acquire any exclusive right to any part of a public road, street, lane, alley, square or public way of any kind by reason of any occupancy thereof or by encroaching upon or obstructing the same in any way, and in all actions, whether civil or criminal, against any person or corporation on account of an encroachment upon or obstruction or occupancy of any public way it shall not be competent for a court to hold that such action is barred by any statute of limitations. (1891, c. 224; Rev., s. 389; C.S., s. 435.)
§ 1-45.1. No adverse possession of property subject to public trust rights.
Title to real property held by the State and subject to public trust rights may not be acquired by adverse possession. As used in this section, "public trust rights" means those rights held in trust by the State for the use and benefit of the people of the State in common. They are established by common law as interpreted by the courts of this State. They include, but are not limited to, the right to navigate, swim, hunt, fish, and enjoy all recreational activities in the watercourses of the State and the right to freely use and enjoy the State's ocean and estuarine beaches and public access to the beaches. (1985, c. 277, s. 1.)
Article 5.
Limitations, Other than Real Property.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in
6
cases, 1952–2009 · leading case:
Lee v. Walker, 68 S.E.2d 664 (N.C. 1952).
Lee v. Walker, 68 S.E.2d 664 (N.C. 1952).
“In either event, the Town of Southern Pines, by reason of such action and its conduct since that time, is now estopped from asserting any right to the alleyway in question in its own behalf or in behalf of the public or any other party or parties.”
Steadman v. Town of Pinetops, 112 S.E.2d 102 (N.C. 1960).
“Steadman and allowed the Town of Pinetops at any time to open 'and extendi streets into and through the property of these plaintiffs, as shown on the recorded map of the subdivision, whenever the Town needed to open any street or streets therein, until after the certificate of…”
City of Salisbury v. Barnhardt, 107 S.E.2d 297 (N.C. 1959).
“Moreover, G.S. 1-45 provides as follows: “No person or corporation shall ever acquire any exclusive, right to any part of a public road, -street, lane, alley, square or public way of -any kind by reason of -any occupancy thereof or by encroaching upon or obstructing the same in…”
Hall v. City of Fayetteville, 103 S.E.2d 815 (N.C. 1958).
“G.S. 1-45. However, the findings of fact of the referee, supported by competent evidence, and his conclusion of law— all of which are approved and confirmed by the Judge — are that the city of Fayetteville does not hold title to the disputed strip of land in trust for the use…”
Town of Oriental v. Henry, 678 S.E.2d 703 (N.C. Ct. App. 2009).
· cites it 2× “N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-45 (2007). Because we conclude for the foregoing reasons that the South Avenue terminus remained dedicated to public use, the Henrys were not permitted to acquire possession of the property by adverse possession.”
Saddle Club, Inc. v. Gibson, 176 S.E.2d 846 (N.C. Ct. App. 1970).
“While G.S. 1-45 prevents plaintiff or any other person from acquiring an exclusive right to the land, it does not prevent plaintiff from acquiring a right superior to that of all other persons save the State, and the stipulation that the land was within the right-of-way of the…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.