Hightower

I. Facts

In 1986, Mary Flowers (Flowers) and George Hightower (Hightower) decided to buy a house in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Although Flowers was hurt and angered to learn—in the middle of closing on the house—that Hightower was married to someone else, the two nevertheless went forward with the purchase and took 1 title as tenants in common. In May 1987, Hightower and Flowers got into an argument that ended when Flowers struck Hightower in the head with a crystal lamp and threatened him with serious bodily harm if he ever returned. Shortly thereafter, Flowers evicted Hightower’s daughter from the property by depositing all of her belongings onto the driveway, and went on to change the security gate code and to change all the locks without giving Hightower the keys. From that day on, Flowers did not let Hightower back onto the property except for a couple of closely “chaperon[ed]” visits in the late 1980’s and 1990’s, and denied his requests to live in the guest house on the property and to use the property for his daughter’s wedding. Early on, Hightower made partial tax payments and paid some upkeep costs (and also claimed to have made undocumented…