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