Screenshot via Twitter
If you saw a couple of attorneys in St. Louis emerge from their home with an AR-15 to wave at peaceful protesters and thought, “This is going to end with a comprehensive lesson in all the stuff you forgot from 1L Property class,” then you are graced with more vision than the rest of us.
Mark and Patricia McCloskey came into our hearts just two weeks ago, when they busted out an AR-15 and a handgun to confront a group of protesters who — from all available video evidence — were just walking down their street. When Mark McCloskey appeared on Tucker Carlson, he explained that “I was literally afraid that within seconds they would surmount the wall, come into the house, kill us, burn the house down,” speaking to a pronounced paranoia based on the videos. Whether he intends it or not, this certainly reads as “whenever I see Black people in my neighborhood, I assume they’re going to kill me,” which isn’t a great look.
Most of the hate mail we’ve received for covering this story revolves around the McCloskeys having the “legal right” to defend their home. Certainly I flagged the fact that they stayed on their lawn as an important defense in my original article. But now the police have seized the AR-15 used in the altercation as part of an ongoing investigation so… maybe not.
But the more exciting news from the weekend is the revelation that the McCloskeys are big fans of old school Property law, and we couldn’t be happier. And, in the end, isn’t a grasp of Property a lot more effective as a weapon than an AR-15?
The answer is no, but you get the point.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a deep dive into the couple’s litigious history and it turns out they like to sue people. A LOT! Neighbors, coworkers, family… it doesn’t really matter.
They filed a lawsuit in 1988 to obtain their house, a castle built for Adolphus Busch’s daughter and her husband during St. Louis’ brief run as a world-class city in the early 20th century. At the McCloskeys’ property in Franklin County, they have sued neighbors for making changes to a gravel road and twice in just over two years evicted tenants from a modular home on their property.
Mark McCloskey sued a former employer for wrongful termination and his sister, father and his father’s caretaker for defamation.
There’s a lot to unpack there, but hats off to the St. Louis newspaper for coming right out and saying “St. Louis’ brief run as a world-class city.” Damn. When the local paper is dumping on the home town….
The McCloskeys have filed at least two “quiet title” suits asserting squatter’s rights on land they’ve occupied openly and hostilely — their terms — and claimed as their own.
Sigh. It would have been nice if the Post-Dispatch could have checked with a lawyer before publishing this who could have told them that “hostilely” isn’t something they pulled out of a hat but a necessary element of the claim they tried to bring.
Mark McCloskey’s first taste of ownership may have been on his 20th birthday, in 1976. A card from his parents, Bruce and Lois “Carol” McCloskey, would much later become an exhibit in a lawsuit against his father and his father’s trust.
‘You are now the sole & only owner of 5 acres’
The card said: “You are now the sole & only owner of 5 acres of the Phelps County Farm. Papers to follow. This is on the river — Luck! Happy Birthday! Mom + Dad.”
He also got a small box of earth from the family’s 240-acre property to make it official.
A small box of earth? Livery of seisin, baby! Didn’t expect to see that come up on the exam. McCloskey eventually got burned when the assessor told him that no valid paperwork was ever filed. In the battle over his father’s will, a judge ruled against the claim disregarding the dirt clod, which is a shame because that at least feels like a claim worth considering. It’s the sort of symbol that would clearly signal an intention to convey land, right? Maybe I’m just a sucker for the old school.
Beyond the family acreage, the McCloskey home we’re all familiar with came into their possession through some test-worthy legal moves. The couple originally bid on the house in a deal with a “right of last look” clause. When the tax lawyers tried to sell it to someone else after telling the McCloskeys it would be theirs if they could get the money together in the morning…
“I get to my office at about 4 o’clock in the morning. Pattie and I draft a lawsuit and file it when the courthouse opens, the (temporary restraining order) to prevent the sale. We set up a table at wherever Lewis and Rice was in those days and served every partner on the way in and served the president of Boatmen’s Bank when he went to work the next day.”
The move resulted in his own firm forcing him to resign and a wrongful termination suit against them. All the cases were dismissed, but the McCloskeys ended up with the house so they did manage to effectively deploy the law to get the job done.
A less savory incident in the couple’s history of using Property law came when the McCloskeys got in a tussle with the homeowners’ association over a provision in the community’s agreement limiting ownership to a “single family,” which the McCloskeys maintain was an honest, neutral dispute, but what most neighbors saw as an effort to keep a gay couple out.
But there’s so much more! Another adverse possession suit seeking to claim less than half an acre that was fenced incorrectly, an easement fight over the condition of a gravel road across McCloskey land that turned into a Bleak House litigation, an eviction claim against a single mother, a threat to file a functional trespass claim against a Jewish school project that placed beehives on its own property near to the McCloskey home.
There’s just so much here! Seriously, 10 points to whichever professor out there uses the McCloskey drama as an issue-spotter next year. It’s really got everything you could want to teach a course on this stuff. The McCloskey home may as well be Blackacre!
Or, perhaps, Whitestraightacre.
Portland Place couple who confronted protesters have a long history of not backing down [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
Police seize gun at home of St. Louis couple who pointed weapons at protesters [CBS News]
Earlier: St. Louis Lawyers Wave AR-15 At Protesters Like Totally Normal, Totally Not Bonkers People
Opening Up The Above The Law Mailbox… Of Hate Mail!
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.