Politics & Government

Legal Disputes 'Tearing Apart' Lakefront Neighborhood

Neighbors on Kenneth Drive file "adverse possession" property claims after a couple of fences went up last year. Other neighbors and the city have been included in the pending lawsuits.

A few lawsuits have recently been filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court stemming from disagreements between neighbors on Kenneth Drive and Kenneth Lane.

At the center of the dispute are a couple of fences and upset neighbors.

George and Phyllis Fannin own a home along the lakefront with a listed address on Kenneth Drive. The couple also owns the 250-foot strip of land that is Kenneth Lane, which sprouts off from Kenneth Drive to the east.

Find out what's happening in Lakewoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

They’ve granted easements to neighbors who use the road to access their homes on Kenneth Lane, but the issues aren’t with those neighbors.

Barbara Parker, who lives across the street, filed an amended lawsuit last week after the Fannins removed Parker’s metal fence along Kenneth Lane — on the Fannins’ property — and installed a 6-foot-tall wooden fence last year.

Find out what's happening in Lakewoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to the lawsuit, Parker is seeking the title to the narrow “contested” area just off of the pavement and punitive damages and attorney fees from the Fannins.

Parker’s trust (which owns Parker's property) also named the three other Kenneth Lane families — and their banks — as defendants in the lawsuit, noting “the only access to Kenneth Drive from those four homes is on Kenneth Lane.”

The Fannins have filed a counter-suit against Parker.

In addition, the neighbors to the west, Edward and Mary Sue Denk, filed a suit against the Fannins and the city of Lakewood, over a fence that was also built along the property line last year.

The city’s assistant building commissioner, the city of Lakewood and the city’s board of zoning appeals are named defendants in that lawsuit. 

As one resident described it, the disputes are “tearing the neighborhood apart.”

The attorneys for the Fannins couldn’t immediately be reached for comment; neither could Benjamin Ockner who represents both Parker and the Denks in lawsuits against the Fannins.

Mark Kindt, who lives at the end of Kenneth Lane, said was dragged into the lawsuit despite having “nothing to do with” the dispute. He said he doesn’t want any problems with any of his neighbors.

He pointed out that he’s got fences on three sides of his property and “never had any sort of dispute with any of my adjacent neighbors over the past 17 years," even after his tree landed on one fence during Hurricane Sandy.

"In any dispute, there is always a path to peace, but finding the way there is the work of inner-wisdom,” Kindt added. “A willingness to compromise is always the first step. There is a time-honored proverb: ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’  

"Let us hope the contending neighbors on Kenneth Lane find the path to the proverbial ‘good fence.’"

The trial between the neighbors could begin as soon as this week.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here