Setback for squatter:
The Arizona Court of Appeals rules against a Tempe man whose family has squatted for more than a century on land near downtown Tempe. The squatter’s attorney says the case will go to the state Supreme Court.
A Tempe man whose family has squatted in a century-old house on valuable property near downtown has again lost a court decision in his ongoing battle to keep his land.
A three-judge panel from the Arizona Court of Appeals said last week that a Superior Court judge was correct in tossing out Steve Sussex’s case against the city of Tempe because it had no legal merit.
But the man’s 12-year turf war remains far from resolved.
Sussex’s attorney Jack Wilenchik said Monday he would appeal the court decision to the state Supreme Court. And a separate court case between the squatter and Tempe is still pending at the Superior Court level.
The parcel in question is both historically significant and a highly-visible eyesore.
The property holds an adobe house that the city’s own historians have said is one of the oldest structures in the region. The property also resembles a junkyard with a rotating array of vehicles scattered on the dirt lot.
This parcel, which commuters on the light-rail train pass while entering Tempe, resembles what the area looked like when the Salt River bed was dry, not
filled with water and called Tempe Town Lake.
In recent years, drawn by proximity to the lake and busy Mill Avenue, the area has filled up with luxury condos, apartments and busy restaurants. The city recently started marketing the area as an extension of downtown Tempe.
Records show Tempe has tried to obtain the land from Sussex since 1988. The city has not given detailed plans for what it would do with the parcel whose northern boundary is yards away from Tempe Town Lake.
On Monday, in an email, Wilenchik wrote that the appeals court decision was not unexpected and that he would present a “good issue for the AZ Supreme Court, if they’ll take it.”
A spokesperson for Tempe did not immediately return a request for comment.
Sussex’s great-grandfather bought the home and property in 1892. But, according to court records, at that time the land had already been made property of the territory of Arizona, deeded to it by the U.S. government. The territory was to hold that land, and other parcels, in trust to fund public schools.
Sussex’s ancestors have continually lived on that land since. Sussex himself was born in the adobe home, which had been added onto through the years, with an eye more toward space than historic preservation.
Sussex ran a painting business on the property and also leased space to a construction contractor. At the time, the area was a seldom-visited part of Tempe. The dry riverbed was used by Tempe residents as an unofficial dump.
That changed when the city created Tempe Town Lake. Development spilled over from Mill Avenue, the main downtown street, and over to Farmer Avenue.
To the west of Sussex’s parcel is the Lodge, the restaurant operated by celebrity chef Aaron May. To the south sits Culinary Dropout, which has the largest kitchen in the restaurant empire of owner Sam Fox. On the weekends, there is valet parking and a line to get inside.
Sussex, in his 2015 lawsuit, argued he owned the land due to adverse possession, the legal term for squatters rights. The argument advanced by his attorney, Wilenchik, was that the city knew he was living on the land and did nothing to oust him. After a decade, under adverse possession, title transferred to Sussex.
However, the Superior Court judge ruled, and the Appeals Court affirmed, that adverse possession laws don’t apply to governments.
Shortly after winning that argument in Superior Court, the city filed an action for ejectment, asking the court to remove Sussex from his land. Sussex countersued, arguing that Tempe had no good title to the property.
That case was still pending in Superior Court. No hearings have been scheduled in the matter.