Neighbors in upscale Swansea subdivision go to court over use of old farm road
The four homes in Kimberly Lake Estates in Swansea are surrounded by woods, rolling hills and other natural beauty, but a dispute between residents is disrupting its peace and tranquility.
Randall and Kristen Lanham, who moved into the upscale subdivision 16 months ago, have told Dr. Abdul Jamous and his wife, Crista Jamous, that they can no longer use an old farm road that goes through the Lanham property to access their home and that they must build a new driveway connecting to another road on the other side.
“My clients have asked for the past year that the Jamouses put in their own driveway and stop using my clients’ driveway, and it just hasn’t happened,” said the Lanhams’ attorney, Natalie Lorenz, of Mathis, Marifian & Richter in Belleville.
The Jamouses argue that past and present owners of their home have used the farm road for 37 years, creating a legal precedent, and that their access rights also are protected by a 2007 private road maintenance agreement between the four property owners.
“That’s the only road that has ever come to this house,” said Abdul Jamous, 51, a pulmonary critical-care doctor at Memorial Hospital Belleville, Memorial Hospital Shiloh and Touchette Regional Medical Center in Centreville.
Negotiations between the Lanhams and Jamouses broke down over the summer, and the dispute is now part of a civil lawsuit filed in St. Clair County Circuit Court by the Jamouses, who want to continue using the farm road.
In early September, Associate Judge Julie Katz declined to issue a temporary restraining order to keep the Lanhams from blocking access while the case proceeds. The Lanhams hung a chain between two posts across the farm road just outside the Jamouses’ iron gate.
Since that time, the Jamouses have been parking in another neighbor’s driveway and walking about 250 feet across a gravel road and their yard to get home.
The Jamouses said it’s inconvenient for family members, friends, repairmen and cleaners, and it causes safety concerns. One of their four daughters is prone to asthma attacks.
“Just simple things, like getting groceries in the house ... And I’m also worried about what it’s going to be like in the winter with the snow and ice,” said Crista Jamous, 41, a nurse practitioner with BJC HealthCare. “If we call 911, I don’t know if they can reach us in a timely fashion. It’s scary because 30 seconds with a child can be life or death.”
Farm turned neighborhood
The home now owned by the Jamouses was built in 1985 on a former farm, off Old Collinsville Road in Swansea, past the farmhouse. The original owners shared the farm road with the farmhouse owners, even after construction of two more homes and other gravel roads in the vicinity.
The Jamouses bought their two-story, seven-bedroom brick home nestled in woods in 2010. Abdul Jamous said he has provided money and labor to help maintain the farm road over the years.
The Kellow family sold the farmhouse property to Randall and Kristen Lanham in the summer of 2021.
“I took them a fruit tray,” Crista Jamous said. “The wife was very nice. The only time I met the husband was in November. I was coming home after picking my kids up from school, and he flagged me down and said we couldn’t use his driveway anymore, that he wanted a private yard and his own private gate.”
That started a series of negotiations that eventually involved attorneys, according to the Jamouses. They are represented by Bob Osborn, who has offices in Elsah and St. Louis.
Randall Lanham declined to comment on pending litigation this week and referred questions to Lorenz.
“We’ve been trying for some time to be accommodating to the Jamouses,” she said. “We gave multiple deadlines as far as them putting in their own driveway, and I think my client just said, ‘This is never going to get done unless I put my foot down.’
“You have the situation where use of the old farm road, although it may have been done in the past, is not necessary anymore, and use of the subdivision road is the method that should be used, and that’s what my client is trying to get the Jamouses to do at this point.”
The last deadline set by the Lanhams was Sept. 1.
The Jamouses said even if they wanted to cut down trees, reconfigure their yard and build a new driveway, they can’t get an easement to cross property owned by the Henschel family. The Henschels are the neighbors on the other side who are letting the Jamouses park along their driveway temporarily.
Judge allows roadblock
The Jamouses filed their request for a temporary restraining order on Sept. 6 to try and stop the Lanhams from blocking their access on the farm road. Exhibits included a letter from Katie Henschel, supporting the Jamouses’ legal claims and verifying that she doesn’t intend to grant an easement.
“So the Lanhams don’t want neighbors on their private property, even though that is the current lay of the land, so they’re going to force ME to give up MY private property to the neighbors?” Henschel wrote. “How can (Randall Lanham) kick people OFF his property while simultaneously forcing ME to ALLOW people ONTO my property. It’s ludicrous. And illegal.”
Katie Henschel called the Lanhams “neighborhood bullies” in her letter.
The Lanhams’ response to the Jamouses’ request for a restraining order argued that the Jamouses already have the right to build a new driveway connecting to another road under the 2007 private road maintenance agreement, and that they don’t need an additional easement.
Judge Katz ruled for the Lanhams on Sept. 7 and declined to issue a restraining order to keep them from blocking the farm road.
“The Petitioners have failed to establish that they would suffer irreparable harm without injunctive relief being granted,” she wrote, adding that the Jamouses could solve their problem by building a new driveway.
Osborn maintains that the Jamouses are entitled to a “prescriptive easement” to access their home using the farm road because farmhouse owners allowed it for more than 20 years without objection. He said such rights have been affirmed by the Illinois Supreme Court.
The Jamouses plan to continue to fight in court. They’ve asked Judge Katz to reconsider her decision on the restraining order to keep the status quo until the case can be fully litigated.
“I’m not a judge,” Abdul Jamous said. “I go and take care of patients. But how can a judge decide it’s OK for a whole family of six people to suffer for somebody else’s convenience? I have no idea.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
