By Richard Ruelas | The Republic | azcentral.com
The city of Tempe has asked a judge to rule that a family that has essentially squatted for more than a century on increasingly valuable property has no claim to the land.
The Tempe city attorney’s office responded to a lawsuit filed by Steven Sussex, who has maintained a century-old adobe home and a junkyard on the lot near the city’s downtown and its signature Tempe Town Lake. Sussex, in the lawsuit he filed in May, asked a judge to award his family clear title to the land.
Tempe, in its response, said that Sussex’s argument holds no legal merit since no one can claim squatters’ rights against government-owned property. The court document states that the city owns the land and asks that Sussex’s case be dismissed with prejudice, meaning Sussex could not refile the case.
