My question involves real estate located in the State of: New Hampshire

I would really appreciate it if you would please take the time to read this lengthy post because my family could really use some guidance.

My grandmother & her 12 brothers & sisters grew up on a 200 acre farm in NH. 4 of them never got married & lived on the farm until the last one, my great aunt Eva, passed away a few years ago. The estate was left to my mom & her 12 cousins.

There is an evil man who lives behind the farm & has 300 acres of his own land. He befriended my aunt & uncle in their later years clearly w/ intentions to take the farm from my family. He raises buffalo & our farm has pastures & his farm does not (although he has 300 acres of his own & he could create his own). My aunt and uncle were old & not in the best health, he convinced them to sign an agreement giving him “haying rights”. He would hay their fields in exchange for the hay (needed to feed his buffalo) so long as he maintained the fields. He also got them to let him lease one of the back fields for the buffalo to graze for a measly $100/ month. Not even a week after my Uncle Leo passed away, he got my Aunt Eva to sign a “First Right of Refusal” to buy the land at a time & amount agreed upon by both parties.

Immediately upon my Aunt’s death, he started to move onto the property because he automatically assumed that the heirs would sell the property to him, he even fenced in a 2nd field w/ out permission. The heirs do not wish to sell the property to him. They want to keep it in the family & turn it back into a working organic farm.

They have tried to evict him from the fields but long story short; he has had this tied up in the court system for almost two years. Meanwhile my family is paying the taxes on this land so that he can raise his buffalo for free (because the estate is not accepting any money from him for rent because they want him off) + he is getting about $50,000-$60,000 worth of hay every year. It is unbelievably frustrating that he seems to be able to do whatever he wants including harassing my family! Our estate lawyer tells my family that all they can do is sit back & wait – it hardly seems as though justice is being served when my family owns this wonderful piece of property w/ great family heritage & they can not use their “bundle of rights”.

The court case was thrown out by the judge in the district court & the supreme court; so now he has appealed to the superior court. The superior court has accepted the case. The lawyer says that even if the superior court ends up denying it, then he can appeal it again and round and round it goes.

It gets better – the copy of the“first right of refusal” that my aunt had does not have a witness & her writing is messy (duress perhaps). The copy that he recorded @ the county court house mysteriously has a witness signature (Hmm – how can this be that a witness was there but did not sign my aunt’s copy?) + her signature is different. The estate lawyer says that there is nothing that can be done. My brother took it upon himself to have the signatures analyzed by a forensic specialist and guess what – he says that it is definitely a forgery. My brother brought this to the lawyer & again he seemed uninterested, he said that it is too late in the game to bring this in & that they would have to start over & draw the case out even longer.

He has not maintained the fields (they are very deficient in minerals), nor does he hay all the fields as the agreement states (he picks & chooses only enough to feed his buffalo).

He has put up an electric fence & destroyed many trees without permission. NH has a specialized timber statute that awards damages of 3-10 times the market value of every tree negligently taken. Can’t he be sued for this?

It’s not right that because he has money & political power that he can do this to my family. And it’s certainly not right that my family must use all of their money to defend them selves in court to keep someone from taking land that is rightfully theirs

I’ve done some research on other court cases & from what I’ve read, a “first right of refusal” should state a $ amount + give a time period (if not then the courts will decide what a reasonable amount of time is). Plus for a “first right of refusal” to be valid once the owner dies then it must state something in the contract to bind the heirs (it does not).

The “haying rights” is not recorded on the deed, so isn’t this just a license & isn’t a license void when one of the parties die?

My brother planted less than a ¼ acre of hops& this stupid buffalo guy is trying to make him take it down. My brother may have a potential contract w/ a local brewery to grow their hops + supply their restaurant w/ organic meat & vegetables and the lawyer said that he could not do this. How can this be? Why aren’t we allowed to use our land as we choose? Why aren’t we allowed to generate enough revenue to at least pay the taxes?

My aunts & uncles were known in the community for helping others & we want to continue this tradition. We not only want to help the community, but also the environment by growing an organic farm w/ windmills to generate power. Last year my brother a very small organic garden & donated all of the veggies to the NH Food Bank. Isn’t that a great thing?

There is so much more to tell but in lieu of writing a 10 page letter I’m restraining myself.

We have such great intentions & unfortunately at this point in time our hands seem to be unfairly tied. Sadly my mother, who is the estate executor, is tired from all of the stress and at this point I really don’t think that she has the fight left in her to switch lawyers (she has already done this once).

My brother & I would really appreciate it if someone could offer some guidance (maybe you know something that my mom’s lawyer doesn’t). It’s hard to fathom that all we can do is sit & wait & pay taxes w/ no money coming in & the notion that this could go on for many more years is very disheartening.

I am anticipating your reply.