Montgomery County v. Bhatt
Annotate this CaseThe Capital Crescent Trail, a hiker/biker route, runs between Georgetown in the District of Columbia and Silver Spring, Maryland. Its path was formerly used as a railroad. When the trains stopped running, the property was transferred to Montgomery County, Maryland via a quit-claim deed. The County planned to develop within the former rail line (and current hiker/biker trail) a commuter light rail project. The predecessors in interest to a private landowner adjacent to the rail line had previously erected a fence and installed a shed that encroached for more than twenty years upon the railroad right-of-way. The landowner argued that he owned the encroached-upon land by adverse possession. The circuit court ultimately concluded that the landowner had a creditable claim for adverse possession. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the evidence in the record did not establish that the current use of the right-of-way by Montgomery County was unreasonable or that the Railroad or the County abandoned the right-of-way, and therefore, the landowner had no claim for adverse possession.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.