The One with All the Hostility

Alexa Gomez

The sitcom television show Friends, follows a group of friends in their twenties living in New York City. Much of the show’s comedy stems from the group’s struggle to make money in NYC. A main character, Monica, was trying to make it as a chef, going through a variety of low paying jobs, like waitressing. However, much of the show is filmed in her large, two-bedroom, West Village apartment. It begs the question, how can a twenty-something waitress in NYC afford a huge West Village apartment? The answer was given when her landlord, Treeger, threatened to evict Monica because she was illegally subletting the apartment from her grandmother to keep a rent-controlled price. Monica had lived there for five years at this point and because she was never allowed to live in the apartment, was a trespasser. However, when Joey taught Treeger to ballroom dance, he let her continue to live there for over ten years. Does Monica have a claim for adverse possession?

To help determine if Monica could have a claim of adverse possession, is helpful to examine the doctrine of adverse possession through Cahill v. Morrow. In Cahill, a neighbor began physically possessing her neighbor’s land by putting flags, bird baths, grills, etc. on the land, even hosting multiple parties, for a period of over ten years. The neighbor offered to purchase the land she was possessing multiple times. For a claim of adverse possession to be successful, the claimant must have actual, open and notorious, hostile, continuous and exclusive use for at least ten years (or whatever the statutory period is). Hostility centers on the inquiry of “the claimants’ objective manifestations of adverse use rather than on the claimants’ knowledge that they lacked colorable legal title.” The court held that the neighbor’s possession was not hostile because asking to buy property goes beyond mere knowledge of not being the record holder and acknowledges her interests are subservient to the owner’s. This, therefore, defeats an objective manifestation of adverse use.

The doctrine of adverse possession in Cahill provides insights into resolving the dispute over Monica’s apartment. Monica’s possession must be, and was, actual because she physically possessed the apartment and was living there. Monica’s possession must be open and notorious, meaning able to be seen, which it also was because she walked out the front door of a busy apartment building. Monica’s possession must be continuous and exclusive for at least ten years. At the time Treeger threatened to evict Monica, she only possessed the apartment for five years, but she ended up staying in the apartment for over ten, satisfying this element.

The contested element, therefore, is hostility. In Cahill, a neighbor’s offer to buy the owners land destroyed hostility between the parties because she recognized that her right to the land was subservient to the owners. Monica’s case is similar. When Treeger learned that Monica was staying in the apartment illegally and threatened to evict her, Monica spent the episode trying to figure out how she would convince the superior interest holder, Treeger, to let her stay (also considering she did not reach the ten-year threshold at this point). Treeger then allowed her to stay after Joey agreed to teach him to ballroom dance. When Treeger “allowed” Monica to stay, this immediately destroyed hostility because it was Monica objectively manifesting that she no longer had adverse use. She acknowledged her interest was subservient to Treeger’s the same way that the neighbor acknowledged her subservient interest when she offered to purchase the land.

Monica likely did not adversely possess the apartment. But, she’s not completely out of luck! After the agreement with Treeger, she continued to pay rent for five additional years on a month basis. This likely would form a tenancy at will between Treeger and Monica, with the rate of payment likely making it a periodic tenancy. Therefore, if Treeger ever got up to his antics again and wanted to evict Monica, he would probably have to give her at least a month to move out. A month isn’t a great consolation if you just lost an extreme cheap and spacious West Village apartment, but at least it’s better than being a trespasser.

Alexa Gomez is a law student at the American University Washington College of Law.

Image: Rob Young from United Kingdom, Friends Apartment, New York (869395563).