This is the kind of lawsuit story I love, because it’s eccentric and unlikely. And it could turn into either a very funny movie or a very scary one.
The only thing likely about this story is: I found it in the Daily News:
Line drawn across home of retired cop by widow of Jets great
William Cullen, retired NYPD cop, is having his house divided due to a land dispute with the widow of Jets great Sam DeLuca.
William Cullen lives in a house divided.
The retired NYPD cop is mired in a dispute so bitter that he can’t even enter a portion of his house without risking arrest for being on his Westchester County neighbor’s property.
The trespassing ruling earlier this year is the latest turn in the decade-old impasse pitting Cullen and the widow of Jets great Sam DeLuca — whose houses on Shore Road in tony Pelham Manor are on the opposite sides of a humble stone wall built in 1908.
“This judge drew a line through my house, and said, ‘You don’t own this part of the house,’ ” Cullen told the Daily News.
“It’s MY house. I can’t even do any repairs. If I got out and did something, I’d be arrested.”
See what I mean? And the sad thing is that Mr. Cullen only discovered the trespass when he behaved like a upstanding citizen: when he needed to repair his house, he applied for a permit. Good guy! Knows about permits. Except that’s when the town told him a survey demonstrated that “the house wasn’t on his property anymore.”
I certainly hope Mr. Cullen has at least one bathroom in the part of the house that is on his property.
Oh, and who is Sam DeLuca, “Jets great”? I’ve never heard of him.