Darlene F. Edwards v. Cynthia S. Blackman

2015 ME 165, 129 A.3d 971, 2015 Me. LEXIS 180
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedDecember 31, 2015
DocketDocket Kno-14-358
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 2015 ME 165 (Darlene F. Edwards v. Cynthia S. Blackman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Darlene F. Edwards v. Cynthia S. Blackman, 2015 ME 165, 129 A.3d 971, 2015 Me. LEXIS 180 (Me. 2015).

Opinion

JABAR, J.

[¶ 1] Darlene F. .Edwards and.Lewis M. Edwards III appeal from ta judgment entered in the Superior Court (Knox County, Hjelm, J.) concluding, inter alia, that (1) a 1986 dedication and its acceptance by the Town of Owls Head created a public easement over the way and cul-de-sac located on the Edwardses’ property; and (2) a 1924 conveyance created an easement over the beach located on the Ed-wardses’ property, benefiting the property currently owned by Cynthia S. Blackman; her brother, Eliot A. Scott; and their parents, Nathalie M. Scott and Willis A. Scott Jr. (collectively, the Scotts). The Edwards-es argue that the court erred in finding that their predecessor intended to create á public easement over the way and cul-de-sac, and in concluding that the dedication petition sufficiently described the property. The Edwardses also contend that any beach easement rights created by the 1924 conveyance neither burden their property nor benefit the property owned by the Scotts.

■ [¶2] We reject these contentions and affirm the judgment in its entirety. ■

I. BACKGROUND

[¶ 3] The following facts were found by the court and are supported by the evidence presented at trial. See Testa’s, Inc. v. Coopersmith, 2014 ME 137, ¶2, 105 A.3d 1037. The Scotts jointly own inland property located at 34 Coopers Beach Road in Owls Head. 1 The Edwardses jointly own waterfront property located at 70 Coopers Beach Road, near the Scotts’ property. From Coopers Beach Road a way extends across the Edwardses’ property, terminating in á cul-de-sac that is located partly on the Edwardses’ property and partly on the property of the abutting landowner, the Arthur Titcomb Living Trust (Titcomb). 2

*975 A. The 1924 Conveyance

[¶ 4] The properties now'owned by'the Scotts'and the Edwardses formerly were included in a tract of land owned by Cora E. Perry. In 1924, Perry conveyed a portion of her-tract to Ensign Otis. Perry’s deed to Otis described the property conveyed by reference to a plan of Coopers Beach “made by A.D. Blaekin[]ton in 1882” (the Blackinton Plan). Otis’s deed also granted the “privileges of all streets laid out on said plan and the free use of the beach for bathing and boating purposes.” Otis’s deed did not describe the location of “the beach,” nor did the Blac-kinton Plan label or otherwise designate the location of a particular beach area.

[¶ 5] The Scotts’ property at 34 Coopers Beach Road includes some of the land that Perry conveyed to Otis in 1924, and some land that was not involved in that 1924 conveyance. The Scotts’ deed to 34 Coopers Beach Road expressly conveys only a single easement providing “a right-of-way over the Coopers Beach Road” to the property; it does not mention any beach rights.

[¶ 6] At the time of her 1924 conveyance to Otis, Perry’s holdings included the waterfront property that is now owned by the Edwardses. The Blackinton Plan depicts a waterfront lot, numbered 24, contiguous to the Edwardses’ property. These adjacent properties have differently described waterfront boundaries. The deeds in the Edwardses’ chain of title describe their property’s lyaterfrpnt boundary in a, manner that locates that boundary at the .low-water mark. The deeds in the chain of title for the. land corresponding to lot 24 describe that lot’s waterfront boundary in a manner that locates that boundary at the high-water mark.

B. The 1986 Dedication and Acceptance .

[¶ 7] From 1973 to 1986, the Town of Owls Head (the Town) hired contractors to sand and snowplow Coopers Beach Road, which was then a private road composed of four separate branches.' During this period, the Town included in its winter maintenance of Coopers Beach Road the way and cul-de-sac located on the Edwardses’ property. After learning that 'it was not allowed to expend public funds to maintain private roads, the Town announced its intent to cease, plowing private roads at the end of, the 1985 to 1986 winter season.

[¶8] In 1986, twenty-two individuals signed a two-page petition proposing that the Town accept the dedication of “Coopers Beach Road” as a public easement. The petition’s first page identified its signatories as “owners of property consisting of Coopers Beach Road.” The petition’s second page identified a different group of signatories as “abutting property owners on Coopers Beach Road.” Five individuals signed the first page and seventeen signed the second.

[¶ 9] In 1986, John McLoon owned the property that is now owned by the Ed-wardses. When the dedication petition was circulating, a Town official spoke with McLoon about the petition’s purpose and consequences. The official told McLoon that if the road were accepted as a public easement, the Town would continue to plow and sand it, and others would be allowed to use it. The official explained that McLoon would need to sign the petition if he wanted the road to be dedicated, and McLoon signed the petition’s second páge. 3

, [¶ .10] In August 1986, the Town held a special meeting to vote on the acceptance of multiple public easement roads, and voters accepted the dedication of public ease *976 ments over ten private roads, including Coopers Beach Road. Since that vote, the Town has treated the way and cul-de-sac located on the Edwardses’ property in the same manner that it has treated all parts of the network of roads that were formerly collectively called Coopers Beach Road.

[¶ 11] The record also supports the following facts, which were found by the court in an order entered on May 7, 2013.

[¶ 12] In 1996, the Town voted to approve the 1986 acceptance of a public easement over Coopers Beach Road. Available at the 1996 meeting were tax maps that a selectman had “marked to depict the location of the Cooper’s Beach Road dedication based on his understanding of the 1986 acceptance.” One of these maps was admitted as an exhibit at trial and shows a hand-drawn line (beginning at lot 57) that runs the length of Coopers Beach Road and extends over the way and cul-de-sac located on the Edwardses’ property (lot 67). 4

[¶ 13] To assist the reader, we include a black and white copy of that tax map below.

[[Image here]]

C. Procedural History

[¶ 14] In November 2011, the Ed-wardses sued the Scotts and the Town, seeking a declaratory judgment that the Scotts have no right to use and the Town has no interest in the Edwardses’ property. The Scotts counterclaimed, asserting rights to the way and beach located on the Edwardses’ property by virtue of prescriptive and deeded easements and common *977 law rights to 'the intertidal zone. The Town did not file a counterclaim but contested the Edwardses’ claim that it had not acquired a public easement over the way and cul-de-sac located on the Edwardses’ property. ■

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Richard Lytle v. Douglas E. Lind
Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2026
Tucker J. Cianchette v. Peggy A. Cianchette
2020 ME 101 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2020)
ROE v. LYNCH
D. Maine, 2020
Charles D. Wardwell v. John R. Duggins
2016 ME 55 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2016)
Beverly A. Gravison v. Calvert M. Fisher
2016 ME 35 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2016)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2015 ME 165, 129 A.3d 971, 2015 Me. LEXIS 180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/darlene-f-edwards-v-cynthia-s-blackman-me-2015.