[Zugaxxsn]

quote:
In 1993, a cellular phone company cut a hole in an 80-year-old fence on a ranch near Holyoke and began construction of a tower, despite the fact that the three sisters who possessed the land had denied Cellular One access. The three grew up on the ranch shortly after the fence was placed, and the hill that the phone company wanted to lease had been a beloved part of their family’s property for as long as they could remember.

But Cellular One had learned that the fence was not the true boundary of the land, that the hill belonged to the sisters’ neighbor. And the neighbor gave the company permission to proceed with construction.

The sisters challenged, using a doctrine called “adverse possession,” and they won. The tower came down.

Adverse possession law has been around for centuries. Its premise is that someone who possesses and uses land as his own for a certain period of time should have title to it, regardless of original ownership. Every state allows for adverse possession, with the requirements for possession in most states ranging from 10 to 20 years. In Colorado, 18 years of use is enough to claim adverse possession.
Ha, I remember this case specifically (it would have been 1996 that my dad started law school, so this would have been fresh news at the time)... definitely a valid use of this law in that case, regardless of in this one