If Pete Luhn were to return to his old homesite of some 40 years, he would maybe think he's hallucinating.

Gone is his cabin, a place he kept warm by chopping firewood just yards from his front door. Replacing Luhn's old confines and other cabins is the setting for a planned eight starter-castle subdivision, which Aspen Peak magazine recently touted as "Aspen's most exclusive neighborhood." A remaining cabin is the historic and renovated A.R. Smith Cabin, from which landlord Black Diamond Holdings evicted Luhn.

Though it's a different setting than the often-outspoken Luhn had been accustomed to, one thing hasn't changed: Black Diamond and Luhn remain engaged in a legal battle that has been marked by bitterness.

"It's been an unfortunate set of circumstances," said Greg Gordon of the Aspen law firm Garfield & Hecht P.C., the law firm representing Black Diamond. "We really tried to do everything we could to help Mr. Luhn."

Last month's ruling by the Colorado Court of Appeals may be the first sign that this fight is almost over. The court reversed a ruling made in July 2004 by Pitkin County District Court Judge James Boyd, who had determined that Black Diamond and Luhn were both bound to terms of the lease for the cabin in question. While the ruling meant that Luhn had to move, it also meant that Black Diamond had to find Luhn a place to live.

Boyd's ruling came after he presided over a trial pitting Luhn against Black Diamond, which had been trying to develop the 5/12 acres of Difficult property, located 4 miles east of Aspen off Highway 82. Black Diamond had acquired the Luhn family in March 2002 for $2.5 million, with the funds going to Luhn's sons (today, the parcels of land on the property command a starting price of $5 million).

When the two sons sold it, a condition of the transaction stipulated that Luhn could rent a cabin, with Black Diamond having the right to move Luhn from cabin to cabin while the land was being redeveloped.

When Black Diamond filed eviction papers against Luhn in July 2003 because he wouldn't move out of the A.R. Smith Cabin, Luhn fired back, saying he was given a lifetime tenancy on the property. Black Diamond, however, claimed that the cabin didn't meet the county's sanitation standards. Luhn also turned down offers to move to other cabins on the property.

In any case, the argument spilled over into the hands of the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office that same month, when Luhn detonated an explosive on the property as Black Diamond tried to evict him. Luhn even pried away wooden boards from a doorway of a cabin he wanted to make his. Sheriff's deputies then got involved, ordering Luhn to leave because of a judge's order.

Boyd ruled that Black Diamond must find a place for Luhn to live under the terms of the lease, but that never materialized. Gordon said the company went out of its way to find a place for Luhn, but Luhn wasn't agreeable to any of the potential dwellings.

While that episode played out nearly two summers ago, a technical ruling by the Court of Appeals said that Boyd erred when he supported part of his decision with an "equitable" rather than "legal" application.

Luhn is in his mid-70s and fighting cancer. His attorney, John Case of Woody Creek, said he's unsure if they'll continue to fight. Case said one option is to ask the Colorado Supreme Court to hear the case, but that's just a consideration at this point.

Gordon said the eviction proceedings against Luhn were contentious, but had to be done. He said the Luhn case was one of a kind.

"I've never had threats of physical violence, nothing close to this," he said, referring to Luhn's surly behavior during eviction proceedings. Gordon also said the matter didn't have to go to court.

"In my opinion it was unnecessary," he said. "Black Diamond went out of its way for Mr. Luhn and had no obligation to help him. He could have lived there for the rest of his life."