Planet Money (6 May 2023): How to fight a squatting goat
Burt inherits some land in Delaware from his parents, many years later tries to sell some of it. Finds a potential buyer but a surveyor says there’s an encroachment, his neighbor has a fence and goats running through his property. His brother asks her to move it (Burt himself is in Atlanta), she doesn’t. He sends her a certified letter asking her to move it, she doesn’t. His lawyer offers her $1500 to move it, no response. The deal falls through. (It was… I have both $400k and $50k in my head?) He decides to sue her.
Melissa, the neighbor, tells it a bit differently. She grew up there, and through her whole childhood she thought this land belonged to her family. When the brother asks her to move the fence, she thinks it’s only gonna be a few feet, but waits for the surveyor’s letter to know how much. She doesn’t get that letter, contacts a surveyor of her own who can’t get there until December, and forgets about it. Doesn’t get the certified letter, doesn’t get the offer of $1500. Next thing she knows she’s being sued.
She decides to fight back. Studies a bunch of law and represents herself in court. The relevant principle is adverse possession, where the government can say “okay yes this person technically owns this land, but now we’re taking it away from them and giving it to this other person”. Two reasons to do this with land and not other stuff: one, it’s finite; two, there’s no central land registry, just individual documents recording land transfers, and sometimes those documents disagree and courts have to figure out what to do then.
The first time they see each other is in court. Melissa needs to show five things to win, failing to meet any of them means she loses. Roughly: that her family enjoyed exclusive use of the property in question for 20 years, and the actual owner never gave them permission. She shows a bunch of photographs showing her family using the property. Burt’s defense is that his father had a sawhorse or something on the property towards the start of the 20-year period, he has photos and remembers being out there with him, so Melissa’s family’s use wasn’t exclusive. Melissa finds it super weird being all lawyerly, but does get to call out “objection!” when Burt’s lawyer tries to introduce a photo that wasn’t in discovery.
The judge says they’ll all walk around the property the next day. Melissa and Burt say a cordial hello and that’s the (only? first?) words they say to each other the whole time. Walk around, everyone gets back in cars. They submit closing arguments in writing and six weeks later get the results by mail. Judge finds for Melissa, and since that leaves Burt’s lot tiny, judge just gives the whole thing to her. (It’s not the whole property he inherited, just what he almost sold.)
Burt wants to ask Melissa “why did you do this?” Melissa wants to ask Burt “why didn’t you just talk to me like a neighbor?”
Planet Money (6 May 2023): How to fight a squatting goat
Burt inherits some land in Delaware from his parents, many years later tries to sell some of it. Finds a potential buyer but a surveyor says there’s an encroachment, his neighbor has a fence and goats running through his property. His brother asks her to move it (Burt himself is in Atlanta), she doesn’t. He sends her a certified letter asking her to move it, she doesn’t. His lawyer offers her $1500 to move it, no response. The deal falls through. (It was… I have both $400k and $50k in my head?) He decides to sue her.
Melissa, the neighbor, tells it a bit differently. She grew up there, and through her whole childhood she thought this land belonged to her family. When the brother asks her to move the fence, she thinks it’s only gonna be a few feet, but waits for the surveyor’s letter to know how much. She doesn’t get that letter, contacts a surveyor of her own who can’t get there until December, and forgets about it. Doesn’t get the certified letter, doesn’t get the offer of $1500. Next thing she knows she’s being sued.
She decides to fight back. Studies a bunch of law and represents herself in court. The relevant principle is adverse possession, where the government can say “okay yes this person technically owns this land, but now we’re taking it away from them and giving it to this other person”. Two reasons to do this with land and not other stuff: one, it’s finite; two, there’s no central land registry, just individual documents recording land transfers, and sometimes those documents disagree and courts have to figure out what to do then.
The first time they see each other is in court. Melissa needs to show five things to win, failing to meet any of them means she loses. Roughly: that her family enjoyed exclusive use of the property in question for 20 years, and the actual owner never gave them permission. She shows a bunch of photographs showing her family using the property. Burt’s defense is that his father had a sawhorse or something on the property towards the start of the 20-year period, he has photos and remembers being out there with him, so Melissa’s family’s use wasn’t exclusive. Melissa finds it super weird being all lawyerly, but does get to call out “objection!” when Burt’s lawyer tries to introduce a photo that wasn’t in discovery.
The judge says they’ll all walk around the property the next day. Melissa and Burt say a cordial hello and that’s the (only? first?) words they say to each other the whole time. Walk around, everyone gets back in cars. They submit closing arguments in writing and six weeks later get the results by mail. Judge finds for Melissa, and since that leaves Burt’s lot tiny, judge just gives the whole thing to her. (It’s not the whole property he inherited, just what he almost sold.)
Burt wants to ask Melissa “why did you do this?” Melissa wants to ask Burt “why didn’t you just talk to me like a neighbor?”