Also known as: possessory rights · possessory interest
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A legal interest that confers the right to control and exclude others from property. The interest arises from an effective conveyance or actual possession and supports claims ranging from trespass actions to superior title in theft prosecutions.
Pulse Media leased office space from Pinnacle Holdings for a fixed term that expired on June 30. After the term ended, Pulse Media continued to occupy the premises without Pinnacle Holdings consent and without asserting any claim of superior title. Pinnacle Holdings may treat Pulse Media as holding only an estate at sufferance because the original possessory interest created by the lease has terminated.
Patricia Patel granted Peter Park permission to cross her pasture to reach a fishing stream. Patricia then sold the pasture to Premier Manufacturing. When Peter Park attempted to cross the land the day after the sale closed, Premier Manufacturing could revoke the prior consent because the transfer of Patricia's possessory interest ended the original permission.
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Paige Porter owned a single parcel containing both a house and a private driveway leading to the public road. She conveyed the house lot to Pavel Petrov while retaining the rear lot. Because the driveway had been used to reach the house before the division, Pavel Petrov acquired an implied easement over the retained land based on his possessory interest in the house lot.
CompuServe operated email servers that received thousands of unsolicited messages sent by Cyber Promotions. The volume of messages consumed server storage and processing capacity that CompuServe had dedicated to its paying subscribers. CompuServe could maintain a trespass claim because the messages interfered with its possessory interest in the servers.
Police stopped a vehicle in which Pamela Phillips was a passenger and searched the glove compartment and under the front seat. Pamela Phillips moved to suppress the evidence on Fourth Amendment grounds. Because she neither owned the car nor held any possessory interest in it, she lacked standing to contest the search.
Prison officials searched the cell occupied by Piper Patel and seized personal items. Piper Patel claimed the search violated her Fourth Amendment rights. Because a prisoner has no possessory right to privacy in the cell against institutional searches, the seizure could not be challenged on that basis.
A possessory right grants present control and the ability to exclude others even when legal title rests elsewhere. It supports actions such as trespass or ejectment and can be superior to a later claimant's interest in larceny prosecutions.
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A possessory right ends when the holder conveys or otherwise terminates the underlying interest. Any prior consent to enter the land given by the former holder is thereby revoked as to the new possessor.
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Yes. When a single parcel is divided by conveyance, an easement may arise by implication in favor of the grantee who receives a possessory interest in one part against the grantor who retains the other part.
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No. A mere passenger who neither owns the vehicle nor holds any possessory interest in it lacks standing to challenge a search of the car or its contents.
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…to which Teleprompter's cable and hardware attach. Under modern landlord-tenant law, a residential tenancy is not merely a possessory interest in specified space, but also a contract for the provision of a package of services and facilities necessary and appurtenant to that space. See R. Schoshinski, American Law of Landlord and…