Opinion ID: 2445933
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Use of Old Lot 826

Text: The parties presented conflicting evidence about the extent and nature of the neighbors' use of Old Lot 826 and the Archdiocese's control of the property. Father O'Sullivan, pastor of Saint Peter's Parochial School, testified that when he started serving at the school in 1970, he noticed a chain link fence separating the two lots owned by the Archdiocese (Old Lots 826 and 837). There was an unlocked gate on the fence, which opened to the school side. In the 1990s, the school locked the gate in order to keep the students out of Old Lot 826; the key was kept in the school's office. Father O'Sullivan testified that he had seen other people walk in Old Lot 826 from time to time, and that the school was exercising a good neighbor policy by not excluding others from using the property. He also testified that he called the Archdiocese in 1993 when the Downeys tried to exercise control over that land. Mary Rockwell, the vice-principal at Saint Peter's Parochial School, testified that the school had installed a lock on the chain link fence at one time, and changed it at a later time. She said that in the 1990s, someone changed the lock and the school did not have a key. The school then removed the lock and installed a new lock. Ms. Rockwell also testified that the school maintained Old Lot 826, cutting down a rose bush there in the 1990s, and regularly cleaning up debris and vines. William Hagins and his wife were the prior owners of lots 816 and 817. Mr. Hagins testified that in 1970 he replaced a rusty chain link fence with a broken gate in the back of his property with a six-foot chain link fence. [8] Mr. Hagins testified that he was not aware that his property line did not extend as far as the fence, and that no one from the church or the school interfered with his use of the property. When he leased the house on lot 816 to Chris and Thomas Downey in 1974, [9] Mr. Hagins said that use of the property extending to the fence was included in the rent. Chris Downey testified that she maintained the back of the propertyincluding part of Old Lot 826like it was her own: she cleared the area and planted a garden, held parties and fundraisers there, and kept a key to the gate on the chain link fence. When a student from the school crawled under the fence to retrieve a ball, Ms. Downey said she would ask the teacher to not let the school children come into her yard. In 1986, the Downeys bought lots 816 and 817 from the Hagins. When asked about her understanding of the back portion of the back yard, Ms. Downey answered: It was always my understanding that we did not havewe owned by adverse possession. How much of it was unclear, but we knew that we owned part of it by adverse possession, and it had been used that way for many, many years. People had been using it, fencing it in and using it openly before we rented it. When asked if they had requested a quit-claim deed in order to secure their right in Old Lot 826 when they acquired lots 816 and 817 from the Hagins, however, Ms. Downey said, I don't even know what that is. Ms. Downey stated that they did nothing with the information about adverse possession, and just continued to enjoy it. When the Downeys sold lot 816 to appellant Sears in 1996, Ms. Downey was astonished ... [to] realize how short the backyard was with respect to the legal title. As mentioned, she advised Sears that all of the land did not convey. Thomas Mahr and Karen Nelson (who sold lot 818 to appellant Sears in 2001) had purchased the lot from Emma McAfee and Irvin William in 1994. Mr. Mahr declared in an affidavit what he knew of his predecessors' use of the property: [W]e were told that Ms. McAfee and her sister before her had continuously possessed and occupied the area behind the house all the way to the rear of the chain link fence for more than fifteen years even though the area was not shown on the plat of the lot as being part of Lot 818 which was the lot we were purchasing. Appellant Sears testified that in 2003, he tore down a chain link fence that stood between Old Lots 826 and 837. In its place, Sears installed an opaque wooden fence. He stated that an official from the school came over to my house to express concern about erecting the improvedthe nicer fence, and another day or two or more after that, a school person, who might have been the principal ... it was a woman ... expressed similar concerns about this new, nicer fence going up.... After the wooden fence was installed, Sears locked the gate, to which only he and his neighborsappellants Howard and Kretzschmarheld a key. Pamela Klobukowski, the school's principal, testified that in August 2003 she saw construction workers installing a wooden fence at the western and southern boundary of the School's playground. She confronted Sears and told him he did not have the legal right to take down the chain link fence. The Archdiocese then tore down the wooden fence Sears had put up and replaced it with a chain link fence similar to the one that had long existed between the rear of Saint Peter's Parochial School and Old Lot 826. Appellants filed their lawsuit in January 2004.