by: Patrick A. Randolph, Jr.
Professor of Law
UMKC School of Law
randolphp@umkc.edu

ACCESSION: Landowner obtains outright ownership of house mistakenly constructed on his property by another without the knowledge or consent of owner; and has no duty to pay for it; and party performing construction has no right to return to property to remove construction. Angelo v. Brazauskas, 620 N.Y.S.2d. 692 (App. Div. 1994). Current interpretation of the common-law doctrine of accession provides that the owner of property is entitled to all that is added or united to it, unless there is some misconduct on the part of the owner or a failure to act after the owner discovers that the improvement was being made. Comment: Some states have statutes protecting the "innocent improver," but the common law doctrine, as this case indicates, favors the innocent landowner.

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