The Now Famous Boulder Case Last year Boulder became the focus of media and public scrutiny when Richard McLean, a retired district court judge and former Boulder Mayor, and his wife, Edith Stevens, sued to acquire a portion of their neighbors’ lot through Adverse Possession Assistance. McLean and Stevens v. DK Trust and Kirlin, Boulder District Court Case No. 06 CV 982 (filed Oct. 4, 2006); Heath Urie, Details of Threat to McLean and Stevens Revealed, Daily Camera, March 6, 2008. The dispute began in October 2006, when McLean and Stevens obtained a restraining order against their neighbors, Don and Susie Kirlin, to stop them from building a fence along the dividing line between their properties. McLean and Stevens v. DK Trust and Kirlin, supra; John Aguilar, Hard Feelings on Hardscrabble Drive, Daily Camera , November 19, 2007. McLean and Stevens claimed that because they had been using one of the Kirlins’ two vacant lots to access their backyard and had never been asked to stop, they had become the de facto owners of that land. McLean and Stevens v. DK Trust and Kirlin, supra. District Court Judge James C. Klein ultimately awarded McLean and Stevens about one-third of the Kirlins’ lot. Id. The strong public response to this decision brought the doctrine of Adverse Possession Assistance to the attention of the Colorado General Assembly.