Squatter’s
Rights Upheld in Court of Law
Occupation in Oakland, California Has
Victory Fighting Eviction
Oakland, CA- On Thursday March 14, 2013 occupiers of
properties in Oakland, California won the legal battle to maintain community
space in the Alameda County Superior Court. Judge Victoria Kolakowski issued a
judgment in favor of the defendants, occupiers of the properties known as the
Hot Mess/RCA Compound, and against plaintiff Rockridge Properties, LLC. This
community space includes housing, an urban farm project, and a social center.
In a long fight for squatter’s rights this judgment is a welcome victory.
Oakland, which is known for one of the most resilient
encampments of the Occupy movement, has also been home to numerous occupied
spaces before and after the Occupy movement began.
In her ruling dismissing the lawsuit on March 14, 2013
Judge Victoria Kolakowski stated, “There is no authority for the proposition
that the successor of an ownership interest also obtains the prior owner’s
possessory rights retroactively.” (Rockridge
Properties, LLC v. Carey et al., Alameda County Superior Court case number
RG12638555)
Upon their victory co-defendant Steven DeCaprio, CEO and
founder of the non-profit Land Action, stated, “This ruling gives hope that we will
return to the principal that land should be used for the benefit of society and
not merely as a commodity to be abused by banks and speculators.”
Since the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008, banks who received
generous bailouts by the federal government have, for the most part, refused to
provide any relief to home owners facing foreclosure.
Teri-Dawn Elkins, Interim Chief Operations Officer for Land Action
states, “This victory for occupiers should put the banks on notice that it is
in their best interests to renegotiate mortgages with home owners rather than later
losing those foreclosed properties to adverse possessors such as the ones in
the HM/RCA Compound.”
