Standewitz v. Boho

                             No. 2--96--0797

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                                 IN THE

                       APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS

                             SECOND DISTRICT

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DELORES STANKEWITZ, JANE VAN         )  Appeal from the Circuit Court

HAMME, LaVONNE ERTMER, and           )  of Jo Daviess County.

MAXINE BUFFO,                   )

                               )

    Plaintiffs-Appellees,           )

                                    )  No. 93--CH--21

v.                                   )

                                    )

JAMES W. BOHO and MARY               )  

ELLEN BOHO,                     )  Honorable

                                    )  William A. Kelly,

    Defendants-Appellants.          )  Judge, Presiding.

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    JUSTICE DOYLE delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendants, James and Mary Ellen Boho, appeal the circuit court's order finding that plaintiffs, Delores Stankewitz, Jane Van Hamme, LaVonne Ertmer, and Maxine Buffo, had obtained title by adverse possession to approximately three acres of land of which defendants are the legal titleholders.  Defendants' contentions can be summarized as follows:  (1) the evidence was insufficient to support the court's finding of adverse possession and (2) plaintiffs failed to establish the boundaries of the disputed parcel.

Plaintiffs and defendants own adjacent parcels of land in Elizabeth Township, Jo Daviess County.  Plaintiffs' parcel borders defendants' to the east and south.  Defendants purchased their parcel in 1993 from William Brown, who had acquired it from his aunt and uncle, William and Gladys Mougin, in 1975.  The parcel had been in the Brown-Mougin family since at least the mid-1800s. Plaintiffs acquired their parcel from their mother, Orphie Mitchell, in 1991.  She and her late husband, Lawrence Mitchell, purchased the tract from Alice Virtue in 1959.

Shortly after acquiring their property, the Mitchells began leasing the adjacent tract from the Mougins and later from Brown. They used both parcels to run cattle.

When the Mitchells purchased their parcel, an irregular, or "zig-zag," fence existed on the southeast quarter of the adjacent Mougin-Brown property.  This fence ran roughly in a semicircle and approxim