Friday, January 25, 2008

The power of embarrassment

The case of a shameless land-grab by prominent retired judge and former mayor of Boulder, Colorado, Richard McLean, and his politically connected wife, Edith Stevens, has taken an interesting turn. Colorado State Rep. Claire Levy, whom Stevens served as campaign treasurer at the time she and McLean took advantage of the relatively unknown legal doctrine of adverse possession to steal one-third of a parcel of land from the neighboring Kirlin family, has proposed legislation to make such unsavory scenarios somewhat more difficult in the future. The legislative move would also help to distance her from her one-time allies, since the relationship has become something of an albatross around her neck.

One bill would address the unseemly and much-commented-upon situation which had current Boulder District Judge James C. Klein awarding former Boulder District Judge Richard McLean a profitable real estate windfall. The other bill, which she didn't originate, but which she is co-sponsoring, would somewhat reform the use of adverse possession so that it less thoroughly resembles highway robbery.

Levy -- who is friends with McLean and Stevens, and who has faced public calls to "disassociate" herself from the couple -- said her straightforward, four-sentence-long amendment would fix that issue. It requires the chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court to appoint a presiding judge from another jurisdiction in county and district court cases where one of the parties is a current or former judge from within the same district in which the case is filed...

Levy also is co-sponsoring legislation that would change the requirements to win an adverse-possession claim, and would give judges in those types of cases the power to charge fair-market value for any land won through adverse possession. That bill is scheduled to be heard by the judiciary committee Feb. 6.
The reform bill, in particular, seems to be on the fast track to passage by state legislators caught unprepared by the level of public outrage over the legalized theft of a parcel of land by the savvy and well-connected Boulder couple. According to the Boulder Daily Camera, "[a]t least 31 state representatives and 17 state senators have co-sponsored" the measure.

Unfortunately, none of this means that the Kirlins get their stolen land back; it just makes similar robberies more difficult in the future. The family has appealed Judge Klein's initial ruling, but the Kirlins are given little chance of success. "Legalized theft" may be wrong, but it is, after all, legal.

All of this injustice comes at a significant price. The Kirlins estimate their legal bills at $200,000. They're pretty well-heeled, so they're not headed for the poor-house. But just imagine how little fight most families on a tight budget could put up under similar circumstances -- especially with disappointment the likely ultimate outcome.

Whatever reform measures do pass -- and it looks like something certainly will make it into the law books -- we can certainly thank the desperate efforts of Claire Levy and her colleagues in the Colorado legislature to put as much space as possible between themselves and the likes of Richard McLean and Edith Stevens.

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