Ownership and Adjoining Landowners

Litigation, arbitration and mediation (declaratory relief, specific performance, injunctions, damages) of disputes over contract interpretation, performance and breach, common law and statutory liability

Boundary line agreements — scope and elements, express or implied, erection of fences, period of use

Encroachments — trespass or nuisance, injunctions, damages, lapse of time, insurance coverage for defense and third party liability

Easements —easements created by implied grant or reservation, easements created by necessity, easements created by prescription, relative rights of easement owner and servient tenement owners, maintenance and repair, sale of servient tenement, rights of bona fide purchaser for value, interference with use of easement, termination (merger, abandonment, adverse possession, condemnation, etc.)

Fences — Party walls, division fences, and other fences

Adverse possession and prescriptive easements — adverse possession vs. prescriptive easement, claim of right or color of title, actual, etc. possession, hostile, etc. use, continuous, etc. possession, payment of taxes

Nuisances — public or private, permanent vs. continuing, conduct or conditions, because of location, liability with change of ownership, noise, emissions, health or safety risks, indecent or offensive acts, sale of alcohol or drugs, obstruction of light and air, spite fences, coming to nuisance, compliance with zoning laws, consent, lapse of time, relief with injunctions, recover damages because of loss of use or fear of future injury, insurance coverage for defense and third party liability

Trees — overhanging branches, on common boundary, self-help, relief with injunctions, recover damages

Discharge of water — surface waters vs. flood waters, diversion or obstruction of natural watercourse, lapse of time, relief with injunctions, recover damages

Landsides and subsidence — case law and code liability, insurance coverage

Condemnation — scope of government right to take, valuation, compensation for fixtures, damage to property not condemned, award of litigation expenses after unreasonable offer

Inverse condemnation — physical invasion, interference with property rights, undue restrictions on property rights, recover damages

Insurance coverage — find insurance for alleged third party liability and defense of third party claims, find coverage for first party claims

“Mr. Lines resolved a boundary line dispute for my family. We thought we had purchased property which actually belonged to our neighbors. The neighbors rejected our adverse possession claims.  Mr. Lines saw and explained why we had a prescriptive easement.  When unavoidable delays in getting and recording a new legal description appeared to kill an opportunity to favorably settle our prescriptive easement litigation, and our neighbors’ ability to sell their property, Mr. Lines creatively used a lease with an option to purchase to secure our rights and give our neighbors the title they needed to sell their property.”  Steve Nolls, Sierra Mortgage.