02x94 - He Stole My Land!

[bunniefuu]

She called the police.

You took that property
and made it look like yours.

She said that she would sell it to me.

There's no agreement.

I wouldn't have done none of this
if she would've told me no.

She let you park there for four years.

We never had a problem.

You never had a problem
'cause she was a good neighbor.

[narrator] This is Judy Justice.

[theme music]

[narrator] Julian Hall is suing
his neighbor, Staci Benedum,

for breach of contract and attorney fees.

[bailiff] Court, come to order.
All rise.

Have a seat, please.

Case #2128, Hall versus Benedum.

- Thank you.
- You're welcome.

Mr. Hall, you and the Defendant
are neighbors?

Yes ma'am.

And your houses are
right next to each other?

Hers is on the corner of mine is...

- Right next to her?
- Right next to hers.

[Judy] Got it.
What your complaint is,

that I see where those two

- the truck and vehicle behind it.
- [Julian] The trailer, yes, ma'am.

The trailer. The property
to the left of that is your house?

- [Julian] Yes ma'am.
- And the property to the right of that

- is the Defendant's house?
- Yes, ma'am.

And it is your claim that the Defendant,

in writing, agreed to sell you
that little piece of property

that looks like it's been carved out
of her property?

- [Julian] Yes ma'am.
- 'Cause you had a narrow driveway,

- you wanted to park these two vehicles.
- Yes, ma'am.

Based upon that agreement,
you went ahead

and did some work
on that piece of property.

- Yes ma'am.
- [Judy] You put down gravel,

you planted flowers, all to make it

look as if that piece of property
was part of your house.

Not so much to make it look
like it's part of my house,

so I can get in it.
'Cause the agreement was that

there was three pine trees there

prior to her telling me
that I could buy the property.

[Judy] No, no, no.

The three trees that are there
had nothing to do with this except

that they were taken down.
And were they taken down

and the removal of the trees
was paid for by you or by her?

- By both of us.
- [Judy] By both. Okay.

So, you asked to have the trees removed

and you both paid
to have the trees removed.

- Okay.
- Not only did you cut the trees down,

but you took that property
and made it look like yours.

You say that there was an agreement
in writing for her to sell you

that piece of property.

So, I'd like to see that agreement.

Yes, ma'am.

There's no agreement in writ...

Don't say anything.

- [Julian] The very top line.
- Just a second.

This is not a contract, sir, to sell land.

- I have a lot more.
- [Judy] Shh!

Not a contract to sell land.

I see what she says to you,
"I am agreeing to sell you

the property you are currently parked on
for $1,000 plus costs.

Let's get this in motion ASAP."

And then she doesn't hear from you,
and that's the 18th of May.

And then she writes you again

a little bit later,
and she says her offer "will expire

at the end of today's business day, 5/19."

And on 5/19 at 10 o'clock at night
you write to her,

"Hey Staci, I've started working
on things this morning.

I have already been to the city of Akron

and once they are done,
and I get a surveyor

and so on,
I will keep you updated if that's okay.

Last everything is time sensitive
and I'm working as fast as I can

to get the approvals,
just now seeing your texts."

- Right.
- [Judy] Okay.

So, that's what you're relying on
as a contract to purchase property.

Well, the fact that she said
that she would sell it to me

and I started all the motion
like she said to do.

I started all the motions,
got the surveyor done, got the fees done,

- I got everything done.
- [Judy] All right.

That was 5/19/2021?

- Mm-hmm.
- So, show me what you did

based on this and what you spent
based on your belief

that she had agreed
to sell you the property

and you had an agreement for sale

which is like a contract
to sell a property.

Most people know that when
you sell a piece of property,

you get a survey,
you put it in the contract,

you have a contract when the property
is going to be transferred,

that property would have to be surveyed,
because clearly

you're carving a piece of property
out of her property.

- Mm-hmm.
- [Judy] I wanna see what you did,

and what you spent.
Because if you spent money

based on this, I may consider that
as part of your lawsuit

because then it turned out
she didn't want to sell you the property.

By the way, I wouldn't sell him
the property either.

- It makes your property look ridiculous.
- [Staci] It does.

[laughs]

- We never agreed to sell the property.
- [Judy] Just a...

- Okay.
- [Judy] Did you write, "I am agreeing

to sell you the property
you are currently parked on

- for $1,000 plus costs"?
- Yes. I never agreed to sell the property

until I told him he was no longer allowed
to park there. It was never discussed.

- What is this?
- Depending on the stipulation,

that my mortgage company requires,
which is an appraisal.

They had to approve
the selling of the property.

All I'm interested in is this one line.

- Mm-hmm.
- The other "ifs" fall after that.

It says, "I'm agreeing to sell you
the property you are currently parked on

- for $1,000 plus costs."
- [Staci] Yes.

[Judy]
Okay. So, you did that.

- Yes.
- [Judy] I want to see the things

that you started to do
right after May 19th.

You said, "I've already
started working on things

this morning." This is May 19th.
"I've already been to the city of Akron."

[Julian] Yes.

This is a receipt showing the $800
from the surveyor.

- [Judy] Okay, may I see that please?
- There is that one.

This is a receipt from the attorney
where I had the deed paperwork done.

I'm looking for a date on this, sir.

- I'm looking for dates on these.
- Look at this one, too.

Okay. June 15th, what is this?

That's actually when I paid to have
the three deeds made up.

That's the $450 that I had to pay
to the attorney

for him to make the three deeds up.

The only thing Staci had to do
was sign them.

And that was June 15th.

- That was not quite a month later.
- [Julian] Right.

- I started the next day.
- [Judy] Okay. This is so far

what you spent
in reliance on her statement

that I'll sell you the property
for $1,000.

This is a breakdown that I have
that I wrote down,

you can show her that.

- Everything, the timeline.
- I don't need a breakdown of a timeline,

sir, I need the bills for this.

- Not what you wrote.
- Okay.

I need the bills for six tons of gravel.
That was in July.

[Julian] Here's more receipts right here.
Here you go.

Did he ever give you $1,000?

He never paid me.

I'm a common sense person,
and a property owner.

It was overreaching to think

that you could buy a piece of that land
for $1,000.

Overreaching.

[theme music]

[narrator] Julian Hall
claims his neighbor,

Staci Benedum, owes for building costs
and attorney fees.

Staci is countersuing, claiming Julian
was illegally parking on her property.

Okay, so far all I have that you paid

was $450 for the deeds, $800 for
the survey and gravel to be delivered.

I got the gravel in there.
I also have the concrete that I had laid

flowers and stuff that I put in.

Did he pay part of
having the tree stumps removed?

We split the cost and the labor
of removing the debris of the trees.

- No ma'am. That's not true.
- [Judy] Who wanted the trees removed?

I never had a problem with the trees.

- I liked the trees.
- Don't speak.

He wanted the trees cut down
so he could have more space.

He was already parking underneath
the trees with a smaller trailer.

Just not his truck. He wanted more space.
So, he came to me and said, "Hey,

what if I split the cost
of the cutting of the trees?"

I said, That's fine, I'll split the cost.
That's fine with me.

And then I agreed to let him continue

to park there
as long as there was no tire marks.

That's what it was.
And then he built this thing.

Well, he formalized parking there.

- Mm-hmm.
- At what point did Ms. Benedum

tell you that she was not going to
sell you the property?

This actually started on 4... 4/3 of '18.

I'm not interested.

I'm interested in the beginning
of these texts.

- Okay.
- Where you clearly had discussions,

trees were removed.

I don't quite understand
why she allowed you to remove the trees

and I don't understand
the whole transaction.

- 'Cause it wasn't my choice.
- Just a second. It was your choice.

You wanted to park there.
That's what you wanted.

- But the trees was dying.
- Just a sec. I don't care

if they were dying.
I don't care if they were shriveled up.

I don't care.
You carved out a piece of property

Now, if you carved out a piece of property
that belongs to her,

and you didn't have an appropriate
agreement in writing, which it has to be,

then I believe, based upon her statement

that you acted on,
you're entitled to whatever you spent

to renovate that property.
Do you understand?

- You're not entitled to the property.
- No, I under...

You're not entitled to the property.
You're entitled to what you spent

to renovate the property.
So, now I want you to tell me

on what date did she tell you

that she was not going to sell
you the property?

That was 7/20 of '21,

after I got everything done
and called her,

I asked her,
could she meet me at the bank.

She said, "No, I'm not selling
to you for $1,000."

But it goes deeper that,
that's what I'm trying to explain to you.

It goes deeper than that
because when it came to the trees,

I didn't approach her with the trees.

She came to me, said,
"Since the tree is dying."

I said, "Well, I'll go in half with you."

At that point. I said,
"When can I use the property?"

She said, "You can use it as long as you
need it. So that's when I started

investing all this money
into the property...

[Judy] So what, I don't care.

She said to you,
you could use it as long as you want.

- Yes ma'am.
- Okay.

- I said nothing permanent.
- She said as long as I need it.

That's why I invested the gravel...

[Judy] What I'm telling you, sir,
is the purchase and sale

of property has to be
with a certain formality.

If you dealt with an attorney,
the attorney would tell you

that it had to be in formality.
Signed by her, signed by you,

the contract that provided for sale
when it took place,

what the survey was,
whether her bank would agree to let her

sell off a piece of the property
'cause you have a mortgage.

All of those things. That's why agreements
to sell real property, which is land,

have to be in accordance
with certain set of rules.

This doesn't make it.

However, if you relied on her statement

in order to improve the property

to make it comfortable for you
based upon her text message,

I believe that you are entitled,
based upon the text message,

to what you spent to improve it.

But you have to understand, she's
not gonna let you park there anymore.

- And I'm okay with that.
- [Judy] Just a second.

- Are you still parking there?
- [Julian] No, ma'am.

- [Judy] Since when?
- I would say September of 2022.

So you were parked there,

in July of '21, August of '21,
September of '21

October of '21, November of '21,
December of '21, January of '22

all the way up to September,
you were parking there.

This is because we had...

Don't give me a "because,"
that's either a yes or a no.

I was parked there,
but we also had a civil case too.

- Which he dismissed two days before.
- We had a civil case.

[Julian]
She called the police, the police...

He called the the police on me twice.

The question was, when did she tell you
she wasn't gonna sell you the property?

September, when she agreed
not to meet me at the bank.

That's when she told me
she wasn't gonna sell.

- September of 2022?
- Yes ma'am.

I never knew we were meeting at a bank.

- [Judy] Just a second.
- Okay.

- I can do better than that.
- [Judy] In September

of 2022, she advised you...

No. I'm sorry,
it was August of 2021.

Well, show me in August of 2021
that you told him

you weren't selling him the property.

- Here's...
- [Judy] Okay, I'll take both.

Kevin.

Thank you.

- And this was after she agreed...
- [Judy] Ssh!

Okay.

I'm just looking for the date on this.

Yeah, there's not a date on there.
I'm sorry.

But that was after May 18th of 2021.

That was maybe July or August of 2021
when I told him,

since he didn't meet all the requirements
that I no longer wanna...

- What requirements?
- [Staci] He never met

the requirements of paying me the money
or getting the land appraised.

The only thing he didn't do, that
my mortgage required is the appraisal.

[Julian] That wasn't true,
because I did everything

that the city of Akron told me to do,
who deal with this on a regular...

- Ssh! Did you get an appraisal?
- I got the land surveyed.

She didn't say nothing about appraisal
until after I got everything done.

That's why you have a contract in writing
for the sale of property, sir.

I don't think you did anything
intentionally wrong.

But there was an appraisal that was
necessary. Clearly if she has a mortgage,

and a bank is giving her
a certain amount of money

on a parcel of property,
and she wants to sell off

a piece of that property,
the bank is going to

wanna know how much that the value
of the property

has diminished by her selling it to you.

So, you have to have an appraisal.
Do you understand?

- I understand that.
- [Judy] You didn't have an appraisal,

I'm not gonna tell it to you again,

and all I want to know is,
when she first told you

that you didn't have a deal.
So, once she told you

that you didn't have a deal,
whatever else you invested

in this property was on you.

No. And I didn't invest anything else
other than getting an attorney

and paying everything,
I need to pay him.

Once she told you that she
wasn't selling the property to you,

what'd you need an attorney for?

You're not the aggrieved party here.
You got to park for free

'cause she was a good soul.

I would've had your trailer and your truck
towed to an impound, on Day two.

[theme music]

[narratr] Julian Hall
has accused his neighbor,

Staci Benedum,
of breaking their agreement.

Staci claims there was never an agreement
and is countersuing for parking fees.

Once she told you that she
wasn't selling the property to you,

what'd you need an attorney for?

Because I had already had an investment

after she said
she was gonna sell it to me.

Once the attorney got involved,
he told me to dismiss the case.

Then after that, like three days later,
I moved off the property.

Just a minute.
So, who brought a civil case?

- I did.
- [Judy] When?

Last year of '21.

[Judy]
And what happened with that case?

[Julian]
It was dismissed.

[Judy]
What did you bring a case against her for?

For breach of contract.

It was dismissed
because there was no contract.

- [Staci] Your Honor, can I say something?
- [Judy] What?

He made all these improvements in 2018
before we ever discussed

- selling the property.
- You mean he put the gravel in?

- Yeah.
- Well, how could he

put the gravel in over the trees?

- The trees were cut down in 2018.
- [Judy] Is that right, sir?

- Just...
- That was, that's correct.

The trees that were cut down in 2018,

- well before this...
- Yes.

So, you did use it.
You used it for how many years?

You used it '18, '19, '20 and '21.
You used it.

You used it. You had value from it.
You had value

from somebody else's property.
You used her property for you to park on.

I wouldn't have done none of this
if she would've told me no.

Every move that I made, I asked her first.

I got it in text message.
I asked her can I do this, can I do this,

she said, "Yeah, go ahead and do it.

If she would've said no,
I wouldn't have done none of it.

I wouldn't have put a dime
into the property.

I'm not going back to 2018, sir.
If you made these improvements

in the property in 2018 or 2019,
before there was any hint of a writing

that she was going to sell you property...

She had a verbal that I can park there
as long as I wanted to.

Okay. Your case is dismissed.
Mr. Hall, you don't have a case.

You did park there until she told you
not to park there anymore,

and you had the benefit of parking there
for at least three years.

I got money invested that she told me...

You had the benefit of parking your things
there for at least three years.

- Are they gone now?
- His truck and trailer are

but the gravel's still there and we have
to clean up,

- you know, get rid of that stuff.
- [Judy] It was a huge mistake.

So, you're gonna have to
take care of that yourself.

- Okay.
- And I would take care of that

- because that looks ridiculous.
- [Staci] I will.

That looks ridiculous.
You have a counterclaim?

- Yes.
- [Judy] For parking.

- Forget it.
- But listen,

I told him he couldn't park there
back in May of 2021.

He continued to park there till...

So, you should have been more vigilant.

My attorney didn't notify him
till May of this year of 2022,

that if he continues to park there,
we'll charge him $75 a day.

And he continued to park there
until the case

was dismissed in August of 2022.

So, I'm only suing him for May of 2022
to August of '22.

And did he move it?

- He did.
- Okay. You still living there?

- Yes.
- [Judy] Do you talk to him?

- No.
- [Judy] Had you talked to him previously?

- Yeah.
- We had a good relationship.

I'm a common sense person
and a property owner.

It was overreaching

to think that you could buy
a piece of that land for $1,000.

Overreaching. And if she had it appraised,

and if it's something that you want
and she had, I guarantee you

that that little piece of property
would be appraised

at a far higher cost
than $1,000, guaranteed.

And I guarantee you that her bank

would say, "You can't let him buy
that piece of property for $1,000."

How much of a mortgage are you carrying?

$76,000.

[Judy] Not gonna let her sell off
that piece of property.

You had the benefit of that
piece of property for several years.

I have to tell you that I really think

that it's much nicer
to look at plain grass

than it is to look at a trailer
and a truck from her backyard.

Your Honor, I wouldn't have done none
of it if she wouldn't have said do it.

[Judy] Do you know what
your attorney said to you?

I can't help you.
You don't have a contract.

And Mr. Hall,
that's what I'm telling you.

I can't help you.
You don't have a contract.

And from what I know now,
this all started in 2018

before there was any discussion
of buying the property

that you can prove to me, 'cause the thing
that you gave me was in 2021.

I have to tell you never had a problem
'cause she was a good neighbor,

if she let you park on her property.

So, if you think you are the one
who's been aggrieved here,

truth of the matter is I don't think that
you are the one who was aggrieved here.

She let you park on her property.

I have to tell you,
I wouldn't have let that happen.

I had a neighbor who had an easement,
and I said, all I want from you

when I bought the house
was I want you to say

that you will never try
to claim this property

by adverse possession

and that you understand
that it's my property,

and then you can use it.
'Cause it was a place

that looked like
it was part of his driveway.

- Mm-hmm.
- And he said, "I'm not signing that."

I said, if you don't sign it,
I'm going to put a fence

right in the middle of your front lawn
which is where my property line is.

I don't hear from him. I said,
you have 24 hours to sign the paper.

Or I'm putting a fence
right in the middle of your front lawn,

'cause that's my property
and you have an easement.

And he didn't sign it.

He would've lived with the fence
until today, 'cause it's still there.

Now his children are living with the fence
because he's gone.

You're not the aggrieved party here.

You got to park for free for four years,
for free.

'Cause she was a good soul.
She's not a bad guy.

She was a good soul.
I would've had your...

I would've had your trailer
and your truck towed

to an impound on Day two.
She let you park there for four years.

- I wouldn't have been there...
- Goodbye. We're done. Thank you.

[bailiff]
This Court is adjourned.

She knew what type of work I did,
so she said as long as I needed it.

It was just a tough lesson of being nice
to the wrong person.

It did look like it was part of my yard.
So, I get that part.

I hope we can be cordial
and just move on with our life.

It is what it is.

This is a great example of
the statute of frauds and why it exists.

So, all writings for the sale of land,

real estate, have to be in writing
and signed by both parties.

I'm sure it was created for situations
just like these.

There's a lot of moving parts.

There's mortgages,
there's banks involved a lot of the times.

There are easements,
there are water rights.

- Exactly.
- There are all kinds of things.

Legally, there's some of the most complex
documents that get drawn up.

So, it can't be a text message
for $1,000 to sell off a piece of land

- without all the boxes being ticked.
- [Judy] Right.

After May of 2021,
when she wrote that piece...

For his detrimental reliance
on this statement

For his reliance on that statement
to his own detriment.

by putting in gravel and other stuff.

- But then it came out, it was...
- It was put down

in '18, before she ever
said anything about selling it.

- He took it upon himself.
- Yeah.

- That would be on him.
- Yeah.

And I don't feel badly for him
'cause he got to park

on property that wasn't his
for almost four years.

Yeah.

[narrator] Want justice?