[IncreasePosts]

And how is there any record of what was in the barn, or how much it was worth, or either it has been stolen or collected by the owner any time in the past 30 years. I don't want to call OP a liar, but a lot of times when I hear outrageous stories like this the details are very different than what was provided.

[madaxe_again]

Among other stuff, there was a bunch of Italian modernist art from the 50s-70s. It was literally decomposing in there, and my mother sold a few pieces at auction at about the 25 year point, which was then used as a reference point for the value of the collection as a whole, and as evidence that she was acting maliciously, that she knew the value of what was in there.

The owner died in the early 90s - the folks who rocked up were the grandchildren of her ex-husband.

As for people who have said “oh she should have charged for the storage” - that would have been nice, but that wasn’t the agreement, and French law treats a verbal agreement as a contract, and also places the onus in this type of situation on the person holding the goods to make extensive efforts to contact the owner and/or their heirs.

[Flozzin]

I'm really shocked that 'soon' can be considered 30 years. So you agree to store someones stuff for a short time, and then you are locked in for 30+ years? I thought america had crazy lawsuits...

[madaxe_again]

Oh, French property and tort law is nuts, and largely founded in egalitarian ideals from the revolutions. Quite the case of “be careful what you wish for”.

There was recently a case in the press where person sold “old junk” to an antique dealer. Antique dealer sells it at auction for fortune. Antique dealer is then forced to hand over full sum to person who sold old junk/priceless antique.

Squatters rights are incredible. A friend had their house occupied one winter while they were away, 16 years ago. The squatters had a baby. They are only legally allowed to remove them this year, when the child turns 18.

The napoleonic code. This is why France is full of abandoned properties, stuck in probate for all eternity, as finding and getting hundreds of heirs to unanimously agree on a sale or whatever is… hard.

[77pt77]

> but that wasn’t the agreement, and French law treats a verbal agreement as a contract

True, but the thing with verbal agreements is that it's very difficult to prove what was agreed upon.

Your mother should have just lied.

[madaxe_again]

Hindsight is a bitch. In short, she had no idea what kind of rake she was stepping on, and so saw no need to dissemble. She matter-of-factly told them they were welcome to take what remained, which was about 1/5 of what had been there — and then she got the letter from their lawyers, by which time it was too late.