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By Associated PressShe refused to mow her lawn. So her village fined her. And fined her. She wouldn't budge. Now she stands to lose nearly everything.
TEQUESTA - Hattie Siegel sits barefoot on her front porch and tells visitors her life story as elegantly as a Southern belle in a Gothic war novel.
"I've lived through the Depression. I've lived through the war. I've worked in coal mines. I've even worked for old Henry Ford," Siegel recalls.
Yet there is one chapter of her life that she still cannot explain - Chapter 7, the one that says she is bankrupt.
During the past few months, the 83-year-old heard the word often after her code violations eventually amassed about $1.8-million in fines, all because she would not keep a manicured yard.
A bankruptcy judge recently ruled to uphold the lien on her Dover Road house, essentially approving partial liquidation of her nearly $1-million estate. That has led to the sale of her half-acre lot in Jupiter. Her three-bedroom home on James Island off the coast of Charleston, S.C., already has been sold.
The West Palm Beach attorney representing Siegel at the governor's request is now planning to challenge the court's decision, arguing that the findings of code violations were not reasonable and the village had no right to sell her lien to a private company.
"I don't know why the village of Tequesta would want to take her home away," said John Metzger, her attorney.
Since the 1990s, village officials say, Siegel repeatedly has refused to comply with the code regulations for landscaping on a residential property. Code enforcement officers have regularly cited Siegel for "excessive vegetation" that has exceeded height limits and attracted snakes and vermin, village officials say. The Tequesta home has since been declared her homestead, so it cannot be sold, according to Metzger.
Siegel has appealed the citations to the level of the state Supreme Court, but each time, her appeal was denied. At one point, village officials requested mediation before a final judgment to allow the village to foreclose.
"This village has worked very hard to work this out and it's never gotten worked out," said town attorney Scott Hawkins. "We had mediation for an entire day. The village was served the next morning with a lawsuit."
The most extreme code violation case in village history has been caused by perhaps one of its most vocal residents. Siegel has regularly shown up to council meetings to voice her opinion during the public comments session.
"Mrs. Siegel is rather a strong-willed individual," said Michael Couzzo, the village manager.
Siegel still owns a lot in Jupiter and one in Jupiter Farms. She has lost most of the family heirlooms she kept in the sale of her South Carolina home. Her antiques are gone. Her wedding ring, too. Originally, Siegel moved to Tequesta to sell her properties and retire with her husband, Wilburt, in South Carolina. They had no children, she said. Wilburt Siegel died in July 2002. He was 86.
Siegel was born in a Kentucky jailhouse, where her father was the sheriff. Despite the wealth she acquired, Siegel says she has never lived a life of extravagance. Most of the knickknacks collected over the years are still in her house. Some of them have spilled over into her carport, including an empty bird cage. Her only remaining treasures are her plants. She has a potted aloe vera and a sprawling palmetto in her front yard. When she recently opened her front door, she was surprised to see a jolly red poinsettia someone had anonymously left at her doorstep.
The plant towered out of an undersized pot. Siegel made weekend plans to repot it and plant some chrysanthemums.
"I'll never have too many plants," Siegel said.