Deb Fischer

financial/corruption · 1995 · In 1995, Deb Fischer and her husband Bruce Fischer sued their elderly neighbors, Les and Betty Kime, owners of the Snake River Falls Ranch in the Nebraska Sandhills, claiming ownership of roughly 104 acres of the Kimes' land under Nebraska's adverse-possession doctrine. The Fischers argued that years of grazing cattle on the parcel (which the Kimes had permitted informally, without charge) entitled them to legal title. The two-year civil suit went to trial, where the presiding judge (Cassel) found that while the Fischers had used part of the land for roughly a decade, they failed to establish several required elements of adverse possession — including exclusive and hostile use — noting that Bruce Fischer's own attempts to contact the Kimes about the land showed he recognized their ownership. The Kimes also presented old maps and showed they had paid property taxes on the land and leased it to a local sportsmen's club since about 1990. The court ruled against the Fischers on all disputed counts, leaving title with the Kimes. The case predated Fischer's political career (she was first elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 2004) but resurfaced publicly during her 2012 U.S. Senate campaign against Bob Kerrey, when Kerrey's campaign cited it in ads portraying Fischer as a bad neighbor; separately, Nebraska Democrats later alleged, without a formal adjudicated finding, that she failed to disclose the litigation history when sponsoring land-related legislation in the state legislature. · Nebraska court ruled against the Fischers' adverse-possession claim on all counts; the Kimes retained ownership of the disputed 104 acres. No damages were awarded, but the Kimes reported spending about $40,000 defending the suit.

Sources: Scottsbluff Star-Herald · Norfolk Daily News / North Platte Telegraph · Kearney Hub