Marriage

— Valerie Marriage appeals from the trial court’s dismissal of her action to quiet title. She challenges the dismissal of her adverse possession cause of action, which the court found barred by the doctrine of loches, and the dismissal of a defendant as a sanction for failure to effect timely service. We reverse.

Factual and Procedural Background

On July 3, 1991, Valerie filed this action to quiet title to four contiguous parcels of real property in Carmichael, asserting she had acquired title to these parcels by adverse possession. The four parcels are referred to in the pleadings as 4200 Walnut Avenue, 4210 Walnut Avenue, 5125 Cypress Avenue, and “the French property.”

The defendants to this action are the estates of Ira and Frances Marriage (Valerie’s father-in-law and mother-in-law), Lois Fetterolf (Ira and Frances’s daughter), Martin and Marilynn Keener (Ira and Frances’s daughter and son-in-law), and National Research Foundation.

Valerie alleged she openly and exclusively possessed the parcels and acquired title by virtue of adverse possession on dates ranging from 1966 to 1979. She jointly occupied the parcels with her husband, Lawrence, who died in 1986.…