Kerlin's Real Property Problem

In 1984, Mr. Kirlin, a commercial airline pilot, and his wife, Susie, a former teacher, bought two adjacent lots on the southern edge of the now-pricey city, Boulder, Colorado. They lived in a home a short distance away, but hoped to someday build their dream house on their vacant land, which abuts city-owned open space, a rolling expanse of ponderosa pine and native grasses.

They frequently walked their dogs past their vacant land, but say they never saw any sign that anyone was using it. Nor did they think to worry about such a thing, Susie Kirlin said. After all, they paid their property taxes and homeowner fees. They sprayed for noxious weeds and repaired fences.

For more than 20 years, a retired judge and his lawyer wife trespassed on a vacant lot next door to their home. They planted a garden there and stacked their firewood. They say they held parties there and walked the land so often they wore a path in the grass.

Last year, Richard McLean and Edith Stevens claimed the land as their own under Colorado's adverse possession law, once known as squatters' rights.

Answer the following questions;

1. Please describe the law as it relates to adverse possession.
2. What are the elements for adverse possession in California?
3. Should Richard and Edith be successful in their adverse possession claim? Why or why not?
4. Do you think Adverse Possession laws are legally sanctioned theft or not? Explain.

read the real story herehttps://www.denverpost.com/2007/11/17/lawyers-awarded-property-next-door/

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