Spokane7
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May 7, 2009 in City
Judge boots couple’s unwelcome tenant
An elderly Spokane Valley couple’s battle to have a woman evicted from their garage is apparently over.
An eviction order was signed by a judge last week and sheriff’s deputies posted a notice on the door of the garage Wednesday, ordering Susan Pierce off the premises at the North McCabe Road home. Pierce and several others had been living intermittently in the garage despite the efforts of Don and Peggy Bain, both 81, to have her removed.
“Everything’s fine now,” Don Bain said. Pierce is gone, and “she can’t step foot on the property anymore. There’s a big old red tag on the door warning her.”
The Bains had been trying for about a month to have Pierce and the others thrown out, but the Spokane Valley Police Department refused to remove her because she had established residence by receiving mail at the garage, which has been modified as a living quarters. Pierce initially lived there with Peggy Bain’s son, Skippy Ray Davis, who went to prison April 1 in an unrelated case.
Police said their policy is to require a formal eviction notice, rather than having officers make decisions on the spot to throw people out. The Bains began eviction proceedings, but in the meantime police twice allowed Pierce and others back into the garage when the Bains tried to lock them out. There was never a lease or other formal rental arrangement between the Bains and the people in their garage.
The department drew criticism for its decision. And Don Bain said he heard from people all around the country who were outraged after reading about the case.
“I had a hundred calls,” he said. “It just went crazy.”
The draw of the unknowable 
Betty on May 07 at 6:16 a.m.
Thank goodness reason has finally prevailed in such a ridiculous situation and I hope that never happens to someone again. I do hope the owners didn’t have any lawyer fees to be paid by them and I hope that woman won’t find shelter anywhere. Goes back to the old saying of, “Give ‘em an inch and they will take a mile”.
Unbelievable_UR_Joking_Right_ on June 03 at 3:16 p.m.
I’m glad this fiasco is over. NO homeowner ever deserves this! The Bains really should sue the City of SV to set precedence so that this does not happen again to another homeowner.
The Police Officer, who counseled the son’s girlfriend of her “rights,” seemingly spoke and acted out-of-line. Perhaps Bains, in their 80’s, were crotchity, negative, over-bearing and so the Officer “wanted” to help the “young people.” But, despite the homeowner’s unlikeability (which if that were the case, really should not have mattered!), the Officer was wrong in attempting to play “lawyer” with the jailed son’s girlfriend. Here are two of the major flaws as to what the City did:
1. The “apartment” was not legal. Hence, it would be illegal for anyone to ‘reside’ there. (And, I won’t even mention that there was no contract, no payments, thus, NO RIGHT!)
2. Second, for “squatter’s rights,” generally every state has a Statute of Limitations, a time period, that the potential “squatters” must meet–you know, 5-7-10-15 YEARS!!!! I find it hard to believe that Spokane Valley wouldn’t have this very common provision incorporated into their “squatter’s rights” statute… and further, should it be there, I DOUBT this woman was there for even 1 year. Hence, she has NO RIGHT!
Based on that and the Police Department debacle, Bains should sue the City for all their costs, their attorney’s fees, the broken window, the value of their time in dealing with this, possibly pain and suffering for sleepless nights; sickness-naussea, chest-pain, anxiety attack symptoms; as well as worrying about retribution by any one of the woman’s “friends” that occupied the property.
Really, the City should offer the Bains increased surveillance for a reasonable period of time since the Police Officer’s actions may in fact have encouraged a sense of ‘entitlement’ and ‘strike-back’ by the tresspassers.