In a 2017 trespass case about effluents and noxious odors from a septic system that allegedly started annoying downhill neighbors shortly after it was installed in late 1987, John and Linda Sheppard sued James and Jacqueline Robards for injunctive relief. There was no request for damages. But a judge in Newton, Ill., 224 miles south of Chicago, granted the Robards’ motion for summary judgment based on laches, despite evidence that the wastewater discharges started causing erosion damage to the Sheppards’ property in 2005 …