Help! I need legal advice re: easements

[GerardC]

Speechless.

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[JimR]

</font><font color="blueclass=small">( Well just got back from court. This was basically both sides had a disagreement with the judgement - They were still arguing the width of the easement and we were arguing that the monetary award was excessive, that they mistakenly awarded punitive damages.
In a nutshell, the judge denied all of it.
It seems she was reluctant to mess with a jury's verdict.
So I owe $422,000, for what I still havn't figured out.
We still have an appeal and attempts to get the insurance to pay it, which are about the only alternatives before selling the property... )</font>

Only in America can a man get rich from screwing someone for no wrong done. It's a good thing he's not my neighbor. I wish you the best of luck taking care of this problem. The jury is also a work of art here. They have no friggin brains and should pay the fine they imposed. Where do they get off making such a brainless decision? How do they award money like that to a guy that is a creep and tried to rip you off of your property. Is this judge stupid or what? It is quite obviuos that the judge does not belong on a bench any longer. Her time has come for retirement. I would appeal to a much higher court of law. This is ridiculus.

 

[riptides]

What blows my mind in this thread, is the easement. You read this thread and you would think that an easement is someone else's property.

IMHO, and from what I have heard spoken from some of my neighboors and friends, they have the same thoughts. Easements are property that someone else can do whatever they want on or too. Like they own it...

I find it incredulous, ludicrous, insane and just plain old STUPID that this transpired. I would plaster it all over the news, because it looks to set precedence on how to rob someone of their property rights AND get you to pay them for their efforts.

Totally befuddled.
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[JimR]

I also own an old farm with another farm behind me. That is why I got so riled up about this. My neighbors farm uses the same driveway to get to his property. My deed clearly states that said owner of said rear property has "a" right of way to his property. No clauses of any sort or of any dimension of how he is to get to said property. This deed was drawn up in the 1800's with the right of way clause. Fortunately for me, we are good friends and help each other out all the time.

 

[MarkV]

I am still in shock over the whole thing. Early in the dispute I was outraged that this would even go to court and waste so much public money. The out come seemed so logical that it had to be a waste. Then the actions of the opposing attorney, particularly towards the kids, got me going. Now I don't know what to say except that I am more scared than I have ever been about where our system has gone.

We just moved and Mdbarb's situation prompted us to take out a 2 mil liability umbrella policy. Why wouldn't the insurance company pay in this case? Isn't that what the coverage is for.

Mdbarb, so sorry for you. I wish I knew of something that I could do.

MarkV

 

[gspig]

Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to let the local paper know about this situation. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[woodsinfall]

This will not be a popular comment, but when the plaintiff is a nutcake, the lawyers are all idiots, the insurnace company is no help, the judge is obviously wrong, and the jury obviously wrong, ... it leads me to the possiblity that we have only heard one side of the story!

 

[slowzuki]

Unfortunately the member location supports the truth in MDBARB's posts. I know several people involved in ridiculous legal problems in Cali. One fellow I've known for years has a neighbour intent on preventing him from working inside his garage. The neighbour would call the police and fire dept on him if there were bright lights in his garage. Called the homeowners association re every possible thing. Called the city to have his vehicle towed if he parked at his curb overnight, an allowed activity, by claiming the vehicle had been abandoned for weeks.

He eventually had to move, there was no way to stop the neighbour.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( This will not be a popular comment, but when the plaintiff is a nutcake, the lawyers are all idiots, the insurnace company is no help, the judge is obviously wrong, and the jury obviously wrong, ... it leads me to the possiblity that we have only heard one side of the story! )</font>

 

[mdbarb]

Yes ynow these thoughts have crossed my mind - With such a large reward even some of my friends must think I did SOMETHING bad.
My thoughts on the parties mentioned:
The plaintiffs thought they owned a part of my property and thought we would settle before it went to court but got caught up on a wild out of control trainwreck of a ride with the lawyer at the controls. I'm sure at the beginning they had no idea this would unfold as it did.
Their lawyer, I feel, is the villian in this story pushing the envelope of decency just for the paycheck. Later I'll copy some excerpts of the scolding the judge gave him in her tentative ruling.
My lawyers, I believe, were confident of the case based on the facts and the normally expected outcome and I feel they understimated the plaintiffs attorney.
I don't feel the judge was wrong as she was basically just a referee in the trial and acted neutral.
The jury, I feel, tried their best in deliberations in a situation with very little guidlines as to what is appropiate. I am dissapointed that they jury was convinced by all of the lawyers statements that were not backed up with any proof. As I believe I said before - their lawyer cast all of these lies - I was banging on the car as it drove by, shouting obscenities, shining lights at them etc. but even though they had five survielliance cameras running 24 per day, they traveled the road with a camera in their lap or video camera in their hand, would call home to alert the other as theyapproached, even hired a plane to take arial photos - and they testified that my misdeeds occurred "hundreds of times"- with all that effort - they did not get on single bit of evidnce, not on video or picture or witness of me doing any of these things. Everything was impossible to disprove - how does one prove that they did not shout obscenities? Which is probably why we went into court so confident. And even if I had done most of this - how does that warrant bankrupting me, eliminating all we have worked for including possibly affecting my kids college? These are questions I ask myself as I am trying to fall asleep at night.
It hurt when - after they decided on the initial award, I had to bare all my financial records for their consideration of punitive damages including my income tax returns and the lead juror commented in deliberations that "I dont believe that how much money he makes, I know Architects and they make lots of money." Thank goodness he didn't previal in the punitive phase but he probably was the author of the initial award.

My disgust and dissapointment is more with the system than the cast of characters. The only ones who got anything out of this is the lawyers, and they can just walk away saying tough break about that jury verdict ol' boy, gotta go now.

 

[woodsinfall]

With such a rational response to a comment that could be taken as very negative, I must be wrong and withdraw the comment and apologize for the insinuation. I can only hope that eventually truth and honesty will win out.

Or, someone writes a book, makes a movie and you reap rewards 10 times your troubles.