A years-long fight over $1,600 of cut trees has ended after a decision from the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday.
Patrick O’Brien and Linda Labas wanted the state’s highest court to order Carissa Daniels to continue her timber trespass lawsuit against the couple. But the lower court was “solidly” within its discretion to dismiss, the supreme court said in an opinion released Tuesday.
The settlement and subsequent dismissal defeated O’Brien and Labas’ main goal of “disincentivizing a litigious antagonistic neighbor,” their attorney Jens-Peter Bergen said before the panel of six supreme court justices during oral arguments in December.
O’Brien and Labas cut trees at the edge of their property on Dunn Road in Norway in July 2022, according to court records. Cutting the trees — valued at $1,625 by the Maine Forestry Service — ended with a $25,000 insurance settlement despite the couple’s protest.
The couple argued their insurer, MMG Insurance, could not settle with their neighbor Daniels, and a lawsuit filed by the couple against Daniels was dismissed at Daniels’ request, which the couple argued denied them due process.
The only reason to deny Daniels’ motion to dismiss would be to help establish part of a claim for wrongful use of civil process, the supreme court said.
“It is hard to imagine why the defendant should be able to force the plaintiff to continue an action that she does not wish to continue for the sole purpose of establishing an alleged tort she apparently does not wish to commit,” the opinion said.
The trees straddled the property line but before they were cut O’Brien and Daniels walked the property line and Daniels gave consent for the cutting, which she denies, according to court records.
For nearly a year Daniels had no complaint about the cut trees, until O’Brien complained about Daniels’ dogs running loose and reporting that he was assaulted by a worker she hired, records said. That’s when Daniels reported the timber trespass to the Maine Forestry Service.
Eventually O’Brien’s insurance company, MMG, reached a settlement with Daniels for $25,000. O’Brien was not in the mediation meetings and “vigorously objected,” once he learned a settlement had been reached, according to court records.
