You may remember hearing stories about the old days in the Wild West when people could take control of someone else’s empty land and have it become theirs.  In modern times, possession can still lead to ownership, which means that even the most expensive of San Diego real estate can still fall into the hands of another, and all without paying a penny to the owner on title.  The beginnings of adverse possession actually started long before the American Old West even existed, and traces back to old English law during feudal times, when starving peasants cultivated and lived on portions of property that wealthy landowners had left unexploited.  In part, adverse possession law survives throughout the country (including California) because of its underlying principle that land should be put to use, and if its owner seems to have abandoned the property, then someone else should develop it.  (more…)