Hi, Bill Davidson.  See my comments interlineated below.

Paul,

In these cases, is there much chance , if any, that the person who takes the
land owner to court will be able to recover his/her expenses/attorney fees
(assuming, of course, that this person "wins")?

  *** A plaintiff often can so recover, however that is not true in all States (the attorney will know or learn before he informs the client of that possibility).   Unless there is a contract (or a lease with such terms) providing for those costs, etc., it becomes the task of the legislatures and of the Congress to write such recovery into the law. If they do not, only in the very rare cases would a court do so without such legislative authority.

  It seems that when a property owners association sues a specific property owner for violating the
  covenants in a subdivision (for example), then the association can typically
  recover all of their expenses/fees, in addition to forcing the property
  owner to correct whatever was "wrong" (again, assuming that the association
  "wins").

  **** You hit the target.  Agreements, covenants and such as arbitration clauses all are in the nature of "private law"; that is, when there is a difference between what the agreement says and what the otherwise established law may be, the parties ahead of time have agreed to additional or to different provisions that will control when the parties disagree.  So, without an agreement - covenant - to that effect, the court will employ the principles of property law and, in a more general sense, will consider the law as a whole.

  Ican't remember for sure, but I think that this is part of the
  Code of Virginia, and expenses can be recovered at least via a lien on the
  specific property owner's property (if not by some more direct means, like a
  judge's order....but I am not sure if the "judge's order technique" is ever
  employed....or if it is even legal).  I don't know if the "legal battle" to
  gain access to a grave would be handled in a similar fashion or not, since I
  don't know that the state code covers that situation in a similar fashion.

  ****  Your questions require that we look to an ages-old notion in the law.  Always, we have either surrendered our positions or settled our differences by agreement, court decision, or by "might" - arm wrestling, duels, fist fights, shotguns, and eeny meeny miney moe.  The threat of any of such sometimes works very well, as witnessed by Mr. Spradling's shotgun.

  So, we must provide remedies at law, and society strives to do so. Notice what we did by processioning. It was but a very effective extension of the law, and as such prevented decisions through either violence or court action. By having neighbors and other responsible parishioners, along with the owners, walk or ride the property lines, and as differences arose between owners about the location of a line, such were settled on the spot with nither courts nor violence.  How?  All knew that should this church based procedure not solve their differences, they had to surrender their position or leave the matter to courts.  Then, as now, courts cost money..

  **** So, all that said, no matter the nature of the differences or the statutes or private law in place, we always have had mechanisms to ultimately settle our differences.  The courts, as you suggested, have extensions of their orders through Sheriff's enforcements their orders, liens, executions of judgments, attachments, garnishments, the threat of jail, censure by the church (early), and all such like.

  How does this all apply to your questions?  The principles named apply, no matter what a "law" may say, and where parties refuse to use the settlement tools/methods provided ("obey the law", as we say), they should plan on visiting a courtroom.  The courts WILL settle the matter one way or another.

  Thanks,

  Bill Davidson



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