City of Gary v. Belovich

MILLER, Judge.

In 1974, the City of Gary built Fire Station 7 on land it purchased from John and Judy Mravea in 1970. Unfortunately, the City forgot to record the deed to the land. Ten years later, an observant citizen noticed that the land was listed for sale by Lake County because of delinquent taxes. He paid the taxes and got title to the land and the improvement thereon, i.e., Fire Station 7. After two appeals to this court, a trial was held to assess damages against the City on the landowner's inverse condemnation 1 claim for the taking of his land. The jury found that the City owed the…