Nothing of note happened regarding the house behind our house in the past couple days and that’s why I haven’t been blogging. The only thing to report is that Sheriff Willits called to let us know he had not found our dog yet. I imagine she was eaten by a mountain lion, or dumbly got into a fight with a bear in the redwoods. Are there bears in the redwoods in Mendocino? I don’t know, I’ll have to check Wikipedia!
In any case, rather than blogging, I’ve been jogging in Golden Gate Park and we went sailing on the Bay with some friends who have a boat in the Sausalito harbor.
We’ve generally just been in a wait and see what Weissman tells us mode in regards to our property problems.
On that note, today we got a call last night from him and here is what he told us:
Assuming we want to proceed, he will immediately file a civil law suit to have Mr. Buckingham removed from the forest on the basis that he is a nuisance to us and because his house unfairly diminishes the value of our property (in addition to the “adverse possession” qualification failure).
He assures us that the presiding Judge, Warren Steel, who is a conservative property rights advocate based on previous rulings, will see it our way. He predicts that Steel will humor our request for an immediate order of destruction of the illegal unit and he doubts Buckingham will have the wherewithal to appeal, since such an action would take a great deal of organization, money and sophistication.
And even if Buckingham were able enough to organize an appeal, Weissman goes on to say, he would have to be quick on his feet, because unless he is savvy enough to request and receive an immediate order of enjoinment, we would be within our rights to hire a demolition crew the very next day and have his place knocked down, like it or not.
He says the Mendocino court system is the opposite of clogged up, and he thinks we can be in court by next Monday morning, which at this point is less than a week away.
All this will cost us is another twenty grand, assuming we decide to proceed, but Weissman guarantees us that if things drag out longer than he expects, he will cap his final costs at no more than fifty grand.
If we want him to file the case, he tells us he can have it done before the end of the day today, and Lester Buckingham will receive notice before he goes to bed tonight.
After another round of moral contemplation and dialog, June and I agreed that it was the right thing to do to get rid of Lester and so we went online to our bank account and had the additional funds forwarded to Weissman.
Although our neighbors above us were up to their usual antics last, June slept more soundly than she had in days, knowing that the problems of the house behind our house would soon to be demolished by a wrecking crew of our choice!
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