Capt. This isn't an unique problem in construction. I had almost a duplicate of this happen in the USA on a commercial building I was constructing. This is why there is a Land's Court, at least in Massachusetts. Boundary disputes are not new. Mine was caused by a surveyor or clerk making a ten foot mistake in recording the deed and it was carried over into other deeds before being noticed.

Just as in this case we had a building under construction when the property abutter who was very politically connected filed a cease and desist against us. We went to land court and got the judge to agree to allow construction to continue at our risk while the case wound through court. The other owner did not like this at all but we had deadlines and money costs which would have really hurt us if we just sat back and waited. In the end we won but it cost a good sum of money and many anxious moments. We even had to buy off a previous owner who tried to claim the ten feet when he found out about the dispute even though it was his surveyor who made the mistake many years previous. It sounds cut and dry but it really isn't and takes time to figure out just who is more right than the other.

This is just more of the same only very public because of the public interest in the airport expansion plus the people involved. Someone in government made this mistake it appears. They will get it sorted out eventually. Not many like a public battle like this don't want to give up their property rights either.

Jim
Formerly from somewhere on a beach in Belize