Attorneys for Star Wars creator George Lucas blame “century-old surveying errors” for the inconvenient fact that a piece of land where one of his driveways sits may not be his land, so he’s suing the town and the heirs to his neighbors’ estates.
George Lucas has been pretty much retired from filmmaking since selling the Star Wars franchise to Disney back in 2012, but his San Rafael-based production company LucasFilm still does work on some animated Star Wars projects and those Disney+ shows like The Mandalorian. Plus of course Lucas has Skywalker Ranch in Nicasio, and according to a Marin Independent Journal analysis of tax assessor records, Lucas owns “at least 24 parcels in San Anselmo with a combined assessed value of more than $41.6 million.”
But there’s trouble at one of those properties, and that Marin Independent Journal report notes that Lucas is suing the town of San Anselmo over a driveway that he feels is on his property. But apparently some of his wealthy (but less wealthy than Lucas) neighbors believe parts of the driveway encroach on their property.
Lucas himself has been using the driveway since “about 1990” according to the lawsuit, and paved it himself in 2021. He’s had the area blocked off with private property signs for years.
“Until recently, plaintiff believed the Strip was part of the Parcel” that Lucas owns, the lawsuit continues. “Plaintiff has learned that the Strip is actually not within the Parcel’s mete and bounds.”
Lucas’s attorneys blame San Anselmo surveying issues that they say date back 100 years. His lawyer Diego Flores said in a statement to the Journal, “We are taking this procedural action to clean up century-old surveying errors, so that they reflect the reality of use and ownership on the ground.”
Many of the neighbors named in the lawsuit are deceased, and their heirs are named as defendants as well. So this may all be spurred by some land sale or inheritance matter.
San Anselmo is being tight-lipped about how they’ll proceed. Town Manager David Donery told the Journal that the “next step is for the town attorney to meet with the Town Council in closed session to discuss the matter and to determine whether a disclaimer of interest should be filed.”
This is not the first time George Lucas has had issues with his neighbors. In 2012, a lawsuit halted a planned LucasFilm expansion, and Lucas pettily threatened to build affordable housing there just to troll his tony Marin County neighbors. Lucas also wanted to build a vineyard near Skywalker Ranch, and the Nicasio Land Owners Association stopped that with a lawsuit too. He also sued the previous owner of his property in 2020, again claiming that his parcel had been shortchanged in a “surveying error.”
Related: Marin Wars: George Lucas Keeps Trolling NIMBY Neighbors With Massive Affordable Housing Plan [SFist]
Image: MONACO – MAY 23: George Lucas attends the Infiniti Red Bull Racing Energy Station at Monte Carlo on May 23, 2015 in Monaco, Monaco. (Photo by Karwai Tang/Getty Images)
2023-08-01 22:29:38
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