Ownership of parcel must be based on the strength of plaintiff's title, not on weaknesses in neighbor's title.(Recent Court Decisions)(Margie McRae)

The Supreme Court of Georgia held that a landowner could not establish ownership over property excluded from her deed by relying on the boundaries set in the deed of an adjacent parcel.

In 2000, Margie McRae purchased a parcel on St. Simon's Island and obtained a deed setting the southern boundary of her property at the northern edge of Compass Point Drive, a private road that has been in that location for more than 50 years. In 2006, McRae filed a quiet title action asserting that her tract included the Compass Point roadbed, which had since been developed by SSI Development, LLC (SSI), the owner of the parcel south of McRae's.

McRae argued that SSI's deed set the boundary of its parcel south of the road and that, because their properties are contiguous, her parcel necessarily extended to the northern boundary of SSI's property as described in its deed. McRae also argued that Compass Point Drive was a public road that the county abandoned without following statutory procedure, thereby causing a portion of the road once included in her chain of title to revert to her automatically. The trial court ruled against McRae on both arguments and denied the quiet title petition. McRae appealed.

On appeal, the state supreme court emphasized that to prevail in a quiet title action, McRae needed to establish ownership of the roadbed on the strength of her own title and could not rely on weaknesses in SSI's ...