Judges covet your property

The Denver Post has a piece on the use of adverse possession -- the legal doctrine that allows people to seize neighbors' property through prolonged, unchallenged trespassing -- that casts a little light on the controversy simmering in Boulder. It seems that retired Judge Richard McLean isn't the only legal eagle in a black dress to use special knowledge of the law to make a killing in real estate.

At the time of the case in 1989, Donald P. Smith was a state appeals-court judge. He acquired a 20-foot swath the length of a neighbor's half-acre lot that he had used as a driveway to his weekend home in Buffalo Creek.

In another case, former Boulder County Judge Marsha Yeager used the law to seize a 100-foot-long stone fence that was built as an architectural component of a neighbor's stone home on Seventh Street.

Adverse possession may make sense when it comes to settling good-faith boundary disputes between large land owners in remote areas, but the doctrine is clearly being abused by savvy public officials who just want to widen a driveway or prevent a neighbor from constructing a home -- without incurring the cost of paying for the privilege.

Richard McLean and his wife, lawyer Edith Stevens, need to be put through the wringer until they return the property they stole from the Kirlin family. That's a matter of justice in this specific case, and a deterrent to others who might try to engage in a little legalized theft.

Contact McLean and Stevens here:

2059 Hardscrabble Dr.
Boulder, CO 80303
Home Phone: 303.494.3324
Fax: 303.494.6973