Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92668 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92668 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
When asked if he would be pursuing his adverse possession claim, Mr Tierney confirmed that would be the case, but that he would not elaborate further.
We reached out to Swann Farm for comment. Mr Swann refused to discuss the incident with Mr Tierney but did answer our question about the adverse claim. When we questioned if he believed Mr Tierney had a chance of winning, he said, “Absolutely not. For an adverse possession claim to be made, the claimant must be using the land without the express permission of the owner. Given that we rented it to Antonia and never explicitly asked her to vacate it after the contract ended, she was using it with our knowledge and permission. Mr Tierney doesn’t have a leg to stand on.”
Adverse possession claims are notoriously difficult to win, and this is one case we’ll be keeping an eye on.
Interesting.
I didn’t know a thing about adverse possession, but it was obviously a hot topic for the two of them.
Was it something Michael Swann would kill over, though? He seemed to be pretty sure he’d win any case, and a quick Google search did seem to back up his position that permission was key.
It seemed like a bit of a ridiculous motive, in all honesty. In my mind, Guy’s was far clearer cut, since Declan was essentially responsible for his sister’s death.
An eye for an eye and all that.
But Michael Swann? Over a couple of acres? Eh… Sure, they’d had an altercation, as Declan had put it, but things like that escalated quickly. It had probably been a heated discussion, and it wasn’t like he was the kind of man to back down when he was told no.
I could attest to that first-hand.
It wasn’t hard to imagine a scenario in which Michael had told him, “No,” and Declan had pushed and pushed until Michael’s patience had snapped.
It didn’t make it right, of course not, but it was understandable.
And that was the problem with people like Declan Tierney. He was the issue—the one who pushed and pushed and pushed, nagging and bothering you until you either gave in or you snapped and did something to make him the victim.
I hated people like that.
I was gladder than I should have been that I didn’t have to worry about him anymore.
Either way, that was two solid suspects, even if I did think Michael Swann’s position was a little weak. Then again, their altercation had only occurred a week ago, and if Tierney had seen him and pissed him off after he’d left the pub last night…
It was possible.
I wasn’t going to write him off.
Alan Sumpter was next on my list. The business partner.
He was the easiest one to find information about, unsurprisingly. His name was connected with Tierney Construction articles all over the web, and there was a large amount of information about him and his life thanks to gushing PR articles and write-ups about the two men who owned the company.
Alan Sumpter was one of three children born to Charles and Rebecca Sumpter in Glasgow, Scotland, but was raised in Great Yarmouth from the age of five. His younger brother died of leukaemia when Alan was fifteen, and the way Alan told it, the financial hardships the family fell on after his death made him determined to be successful so his parents would never struggle again.
He got a job the moment he turned sixteen and worked as many hours as he legally could—and some he couldn’t—eventually leaving school with no qualifications to his name. He went straight into a construction company as an apprentice and worked his way up until his estranged grandmother died, leaving him a relatively good sum of money.
He got together with Declan Tierney, his good friend, and together they formed their business. Declan’s father was putting up the majority of the startup money under the condition the business be named after them, and Alan agreed.
Alan worked hard as a labourer until an accident on site resulted in temporary paralysis on his entire left side.
Hm.
Funny how there were accidents of people close to Tierney on his work sites.
Not funny har-har, just… funny.
After several months, Alan regained most of his usage of his body back but decided to continue with the office work instead. Allegedly, according to the tabloid I was reading, that led to him taking a greater percentage of decisions than he had before, causing a ton of friction between him and Declan.
Now that was some gossip I could believe.
If it was true that he wanted out, Declan would have to buy him out the same way Alan had bought in. Only now, of course, it would be serious money, and that was money I was willing to bet the other man didn’t have.
And if he did have it, he had it tied up in something like the old school development or buying the bed and breakfast.