Property Dispute Enters Fifth Generation

If you needed any more proof that we're not rational profit maximizers, here's a property dispute from India that caught the attention of the BBC

More than 300 litigants, 30,000 pages of charges and counter-charges, over a dozen lawyers, and 66 years in court. That's how arduous and long the battle between two families in India over a nine-acre (four hectare) plot of land has been. The court case began on 21 April 1947 - a few months before India became an independent country - when Biseshwar Singh of Ekauna village filed a case against fellow villager Har Govind Rai in a court in Ara town, in Bihar's Bhojpur district. [...]

And with the Ganges changing course and inundating the disputed land, most of it has turned into a riverbed. "Who will buy the land now with river flowing over it? The few acres of remaining land will hardly fetch 15,000 rupees ($275; £180)," says Satyanarayan Singh, great grandson of Har Govind Rai. Mr Singh says his family has so far spent 2m rupees ($36,334; £23,837) on litigation, but he appears in no mood to give up fighting.

Steve Clowney

(HT: Nick Blomley)