A Virginia court ruled that Gregory Black unlawfully occupied 30 acres owned by a charitable trust established by Kanu Gandhi’s widow. Black failed to prove his adverse possession claim and was ordered to remove his belongings, surrender the land, and pay $11,375 in guardian ad litem fees.
A court in the US state of Virginia has ordered a local resident to clear encroachments from land owned by Kanu Gandhi, the late grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. According to reports, the 30-acre land adjoining Shenandoah National Park in Warren County, Virginia, belonged to the Dr Schiva and Kanu Ramdas Mohandas Gandhi Charitable Trust, but was claimed by a US national, Gregory Black.
Kanu Gandhi, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate who worked for NASA and the United States Department of Defense on aircraft design, died in November 2016 at the age of 87, two year after moving back to India.
Land owned by Trust
According to Parimal Desai, a Surat resident who serves as the Managing Trustee of the Dr Schiva and Kanu Ramdas Mohandas Gandhi Charitable Trust, following his death, his assets, including the land in the US, were transferred to his wife, Shiva Gandhi
After her death in 2020, the trust she established in 2020 inherited the properties of the couple, who did not have any children.
Virginia man claims ownership by adverse possession
Desai, the Managing Trustee of the Trust, told The Times of India that he became aware of the encroachment in 2025 after receiving a legal notice from Gregory Black claiming ownership of the property by way of adverse possession.
According to Virginia’s adverse possession rules, any person can claim ownership of a property if they have occupied it uninterrupted for a period of 15 years. The person claiming the land bears the burden of proof including visible and obvious enough that a reasonably attentive property owner would notice it.
Desai, who visited the US property in 2024 and got the survey done, challenged Black’s claim in court. Black, who claimed that he had occupied the land since 2008, could not prove his arguments in court.
What the court said
On October 21, Judge Daryl L. Funk of the Warren County Circuit Court ruled in favour of Desai and the charitable trust.
The court directed Black to remove a cabin, hunting stands, hunting huts and his personal belongings from the property within 30 days, at his own expense.
He was also ordered to hand over possession and to pay $11,375 towards the fees of the Guardian ad Litem appointed to represent unknown heirs.
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