I live in Chicago, so I didn't find out about this until I read a column by Mike Rosen in the Rocky Mountain News. Normally, if Mike Rosen says one thing I tend to believe the exact opposite, but our views aligned on this case.
Don and Susie Kirlin moved to Boulder in 1980, and took advantage of the market a few years later to buy 2 lots near their house with a combined area of 80' x 60'. The way life gets ahead of people some times meant that the Kirlins had to postpone building their dream home. Unfortunately for them, this would mean their land would get taken away from them.
More Below the Fold
According to the Denver Post,
Despite owning the land, despite living only 200 yards from the property, despite hiking past it every week with their three dogs, despite spraying for weeds and fixing fences, despite paying homeowner association dues and property taxes each year, someone else had taken a shine to it. Someone powerful.
Former Boulder District Judge, Boulder Mayor, RTD board member - among other elected positions - Richard McLean and his wife, attorney Edith Stevens, used an arcane common law called "adverse possession" to claim the land for their own.
The Kirlins paid $65/month in Home Owners Association Dues and $16,000 a year in property taxes. When warned by friends that "powerful people" were interested in taking his land, they laughed it off.
Don Kirlin hired a contractor to put a fence up on his property, but the contractor was immediately stopped by Robert McLean, who claimed the land for his own. In 2 1/2 hours he produced a stop-work order from one of his former co-workers, Boulder District Judge Morris Sandstead. McLean informed the Kirlins he was taking them to court.
Colorado's law of "adverse possession" affects any land that has been aggressively used, without the owner's permission, for twenty years without the owner declaring ownership. If this happens, ownership of the land legally shifts from the original owner to the "trespasser". The law has been intended to settle instances of misplaced fences and buildings mistakenly crossing maplines, but has been used maliciously by two lawyers to protect their existing scenic views.
According to McLean, even though he didn't own the land or pay taxes or dues, he developed an attachment to it. This attachment expressed itself in a path through the lot to get into his backyard, as well as the occasional political picnic.
All of this adds up to District Judge James Klein ordering the Kirlins to sign over about 34 percent of their 4,750-square-foot lot to McLean and his wife last month.
The lot, valued at $800,000 to $1 million dollars, is essentially worthless now. The Kirlins have already racked up more than $100,000 in legal fees, and the McLeans have just informed him they want the Kirlins to pay their legal fees as well.
There is some good news for the Kirlins, however. On Tuesday Judge Klein refused to give the McLeans another 9" x 80' strip of the lot.
Cases like this infuriate me... By insinuating personal attachment to his neighbor's land, and the view that would potentially get blocked by his neighbor's dream house, political people in positions of authority use the law against common citizens to steal from them. Right now the Kirlins are filing appeals, but at a minimum the case will go on for another 3 years and they'll rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional legal fees.
Robert McLean and his wife report feeling beleagured by the enourmous opposition to their case, but feel like they are in the right. It seems to me that the best way to fix this would be for them to "forfeit" the land awarded them by the city, let the Kirlins have the lot, and forget that they ever had this machiavellian idea to steal from their neighbor.