A Phippsburg resident will continue to have access to a stretch of beach that his neighbors had sued to bar him from using.
In a 15-page decision, Justice Thomas McKeon of the Maine Business Consumer Court ruled in favor of Clark Hill in the lawsuit brought by his neighbors Richard and Sheila Tappen.
The Tappens and Hill each have beachfront properties in a subdivision just east of Popham Beach State Park. Their houses are separated by two empty lots crossed by a walking path that The Hill family and their renters have long used to reach the beach, according to the decision.
The Tappens said they bought rights to 3 acres of the beach, entitling them to exclude neighbors. Additionally, they said a deck on the Hills’ house is on their property.
Hill argued that the beach has always been shared and that allowing the Tappens to kick people off a portion of it would set a bad precedent, according to the Portland Press Herald.
Justice McKeon found that Hill has an implied easement to use the section of the beach for recreation, an easement by prescription to use the footpath, and that he had acquired ownership by adverse possession of the portion of the neighboring property now occupied by his house and deck.
In effect, McKeon’s decision said the beach and path had been used that way for long enough that it could continue.
