Facts:
Defendant Panos J. Photinos and plaintiff Martha Mcintyre are bordering property owners. Initially the bordering proprieties were owned by one man named Ochs and were used as a day care center with two buildings connected by a covered walkway. Ochs separated the property in 1986 and sold the property as two with a building on each lot. The Martha Mcintyre property sold first to a woman named Boyer. As apart of the sale Ochs removed covered walkway and built a fence across the walkway were he believed the property lines were. But it was not, the property line was nine to twelve feet inside of the fence on Boyer's side defined in the deed from Ochs to Boyer. Boyer used and upheld the disputed strip up to the fence while she owned it.…show more content… Ochs sold the remaining parcel to Panos J. Photinos in 1990. When Panos J. Photinos moved in, the fence still existed. Panos J. Photinos testified that he measured the property and that he knew the disputed strip was his property and that the fence did not signify the property line. Panos J. Photinos said that he would pick up trash from the disputed strip and would mow and water the grass. In 1994, Martha Mcintyre’s tenants were required to remove the fence by a government agency, because it had become unsafe. Martha Mcintyre hired a contractor to rebuild the fence on the same location, but Panos J. Photinos's wife or child told the contractor that he could not put a new fence there because the disputed strip belonged to them. The contractor told Martha Mcintyre about Panos J. Photinos's claim, and Martha Mcintyre didn’t build a new fence. She researched her deed and decided that Panos J. Photinos's claim was inaccurate. She did not measure the property to see if it matched with her deed and she didn’t have the property surveyed. At the same time, Panos J. Photinos's wife, who was in living on Panos J. Photinos's property during a marital separation, offered to sell Martha Mcintyre disputed strip…show more content… Martha Mcintyre took the offer and believed the payment of $500 would be less expensive than having the property surveyed. Though, Panos J. Photinos's wife was not leagally allowed to sell the disputed strip because the property was awarded to Panos J. Photinos in their divorce. In 1996, Panos J. Photinos told Martha Mcintyre to remove her tenant's belongings from the disputed strip. Martha Mcintyre argued that she had bought the disputed strip from his ex-wife. Panos J. Photinos then built a new fence on the true property line. Martha Mcintyre filed an action and asked the trial court to eject Panos J. Photinos and affirm her ownership the disputed strip, declaring that she had gained title to it through adverse
