Fifteen Years of Litigation for a Single Plot of Land
A landmark land dispute between Perry Lawrence and J. G. Potter near Garfield nears its end after a decade and a half of courtroom battles.
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The celebrated land case of Perry Lawrence vs. J. G. Potter is again in evidence in the court reports. The land in question lies near Garfield, and the case has been through the land office and in the courts for fifteen years. Lawrence originally won in the land department and was granted a patent, but Potter challenged it. Last spring, the superior court ruled in favor of Potter, ordering the patent cancelled. Lawrence appealed to the supreme court, which has now reversed the decision, ordering judgment in favor of Lawrence. Almost every lawyer who has been in the county has had more or less to do with this case.
“The land in question lies near Garfield, and the case has been through the land office and in the courts for fifteen years.”
Land use and property rights battles remain a cornerstone of rural litigation in the Palouse, often involving generations of history tied to a single boundary line.
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