Tempe squatters lose court fight for junkyard property downtown
The family says it has lived there for 120 years. But the city says it owns the land, which has become increasingly valuable with the development boom near Tempe Town Lake.
A man whose family has squatted for more than a century on a patch of land in Tempe has lost his court battle to claim the increasingly valuable plot as his own.
Tempe, a judge ruled, has clear title to the land, which is both historic and an eyesore in the city's expanding and popular downtown area.
The property is home to both a historic adobe house — among one of the oldest in the region — and a collection of industrial detritus. Steve Sussex has said he takes pride in having this junkyard be in the view of those who own pricey condominiums in the area.
Sussex filed suit in May asking the court to award him the 1.75 acres on the northeast corner of First Street and Farmer Avenue.
But a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that, under state law, Sussex has no case against the city. The ruling was filed on Friday.
Sussex, reached by phone, did not want to comment on the case.
His attorney, Jack Wilenchik, said he would appeal.
"We’re trying to fight city hall, and you know the old saying about that," Wilenchik said. "It’s not an easy task."
Tempe spokeswoman Nikki Ripley said the city was pleased with the judge's ruling that Sussex had no claim, but declined to discuss the future of the property.
Q&A: Explaining the Tempe squatter case
Case hinges on squatter's rights
Sussex had claimed that because his family had lived on the land for so long, with the city doing nothing to kick them out, he owned the land through squatters’ rights, legally known as adverse possession.
But Judge Patricia Starr, in her ruling, said the laws regarding adverse possession don’t apply to governments. She cited a 1993 case from the Arizona Supreme Court that pitted the Tucson Unified School District against the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corp. as the main case that guided her ruling.
Sussex’s attorney, Wilenchik, also argued that Tempe had business interests, not the good of the city, in mind when it chose to acquire the property and that it should not enjoy the protection of state statutes. But Starr, citing that same Tucson case, ruled that it didn’t matter whether the city was acting in the public interest, or to make money: Citizens can’t take over government land by squatting.
Wilenchik said he thinks there is ambiguity in court rulings surrounding this issue. He hopes the Arizona Supreme Court will take up this case to settle those questions.
Who owns the junkyard?
This marks the second loss for Sussex in his years-long battle with both the state and the city over the property. Sussex said his family had lived there for generations, but Arizona had been granted the land before statehood more than a century ago.
State: Tempe family has been squatting for 120 years
Over time, the property was cut in half along a north-south line. The state owned the western half; the eastern half was held by the adjacent railroad and later sold to Tempe.
In 2005, a judge ruled that Sussex and his ancestors had illegally trespassed on the property all this time. The court awarded clear title of the western half of the land to the state.
The Arizona Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal in that case in 2014, giving Arizona clear title to that half of the land.
Sussex moved his belongings to the other half of the land. That includes two motor homes, a boat and a graffiti-covered bus, all visible from passing trains on the nearby light rail.
Sussex then took the initiative on the battle to lay claim to the city's half of the land.
In February, Sussex filed a notice of claim against the city, ordering it to deed him the land. The notice of claim included a document for the city to fill in, awarding the land to Sussex, as well as a $5 check to cover the fees to record the paperwork.
The lawsuit followed in May. In June, Christopher Davis, the attorney for Tempe, asked the judge to toss out the case, a request granted this week.
It is unclear what the city will do with the land now that it has clear title. But planning maps for the area have included pedestrian pathways that would lead from the Farmer Avenue area to Tempe Town Lake.
The area used to be a neglected part of Tempe, as it sat near the normally empty bed of the Salt River. But the construction of Tempe Town Lake brought a resurgence of activity to the area. Apartments and condominiums line the street just west of the Sussex home. And the lot now has two bustling restaurants for neighbors: Culinary Dropout, owned by Sam Fox, and the Lodge, owned by celebrity chef Aaron May.
