
Quoting
Myers v Wright, 224 S.W.3d 466 (Tex App, 5th Dist, 2007)
Adverse possession means "an actual and visible appropriation of real property, commenced and continued under a claim of right that is inconsistent with and is hostile to the claim of another person." See TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE ANN. § 16.021(1) (Vernon 2002). "'Claim of right' . . . means that the entry of the claimant must be with the intent to claim the land as his own, to hold it for himself and such must continue to be the nature of his possession." Boyle v. Burk, 749 S.W.2d 264, 266 (Tex. App.-Fort Worth 1988, writ denied); see Tran v. Macha, 213 S.W.3d 913, 50 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 186, 187, 2006 Tex. LEXIS 1189, 2006 WL 3456550, at *2 (Tex. 2006) (per curiam) ("[T]here must be an intention to claim property as one's own to the exclusion of all others . . . ."). "[C]oupled with his actual and visible possession and use, the adverse claim and possession satisfy the statutory requirements and cannot be defeated by [the claimant's] lack of knowledge of the deficiency of his record title or by the absence of a realization that there could be other claimants for the land." Calfee, 544 S.W.2d at 642.
Actual and visible possession can be established by a "designedly enclosed" fence, but not by a casual fence. See Orsborn v. Deep Rock Oil Corp., 153 Tex. 281, 288-90, 267 S.W.2d 781, 785-88 (1954); W. Prod. Co. v. Kahanek, 132 Tex. 153, 158, 121 S.W.2d 328, 331 (1938). "Where the fence existed prior to the claimant's possession of the land and the claimant fails to demonstrate the purpose for which the fence was erected, the fence is a casual fence." Mohnke v. Greenwood, 915 S.W.2d 585, 593 (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1996, no writ). However, a claimant may substantially modify a casual fence and so change its character that the fenced-in area becomes a designed enclosure. Rhodes v. Cahill, 802 S.W.2d 643, 646, 34 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 33 (Tex. 1990); McAllister v. Samuels, 857 S.W.2d 768, 777 (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1993, no writ); Butler v. Hanson, 432 S.W.2d 559, 563-64 (Tex. Civ. App.-El Paso 1968), rev'd on other grounds, 455 S.W.2d 942, 13 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 380 (Tex. 1970).