BAR HARBOR, Maine — A judge has dismissed three of five civil allegations that a wealthy seasonal resident brought against his neighbors whom he accuses of cutting trees on his land.
Reeve B. Waud filed suit last November against his neighbors, William and Nancy Kales of San Francisco, alleging they had cut trees on his property off Indian Point Road without his permission. Waud, a private equity fund manager from Chicago, is spending an estimated $10 million on a project to rebuild his family’s summer estate on Deep Cove in the village of Pretty Marsh in the neighboring town of Mount Desert.
The Kaleses contend that Waud’s lawsuit in Hancock County Superior Court has nothing to do with trees being cut on his Bar Harbor property. In a motion to dismiss the charges, they argue Waud’s lawsuit was filed in retaliation to a complaint they made to town officials about the noise of gunfire coming from Waud’s land.
On May 17, Justice Bruce Mallonee ruled mostly in favor of a motion filed by the Kaleses to dismiss four of the five counts listed in Waud’s complaint. A count of common law trespassing, which the Kaleses did not seek to have dismissed, and a count seeking punitive damages still are pending against the Kaleses.
It is not clear from court documents why the Kaleses did not seek a dismissal of the common law trespassing allegation.
Mallonee dismissed counts of statutory trespass and unjust enrichment, saying the alleged tree cutting did not meet the standard for those types of violations and dismissed one count of statutory unlawful cutting of trees, which court records indicate that the two sides agreed to drop. He declined to dismiss a count of punitive damages, which he indicated is linked to the common law trespassing count included in Waud’s complaint.
In his complaint against his neighbors, Waud contends that the Kaleses met with him in Chicago in late 2014 to ask if they could cut trees on his property to improve their view of Western Bay but that he explicitly denied their request. Despite his refusal to allow them to cut trees on his property, he alleges, the Kaleses had the trees cut down anyway.
Waud’s attorney, Roger Katz of Augusta, sent the Kaleses a letter dated Aug. 24, 2015, that laid out the allegations and indicated that Waud was willing to resolve the dispute through mediation. If the Kaleses did not admit they cuts the trees, remediate the damage and apologize, among other things, Katz wrote, Waud would sue them in court.
A response written last October by the Kaleses’ attorney, Peggy L. McGehee of Portland, recounts events that preceded Katz’s Aug. 24 letter.
“In early August [2015], Mrs. Kales called 911 about ongoing inexplicable gunshots occurring on Mr. Waud’s property,” McGehee wrote. “She said that it sounded to her like a massacre and she was terrified.”
Other people also called local officials to report the gunfire, McGehee wrote, which was coming from a shooting range Waud had constructed on his property and was letting his guests use. The complaints resulted in a permanent cessation of gunfire on Waud’s property on Aug. 12, the Kaleses’ attorney added.
“Your letter arrived 12 days later,” McGehee wrote. “It is evident that the [legal] threats are retaliatory.”
In addition, the Kaleses deny any knowledge of, or role in the alleged tree cutting which, according to Waud’s complaint, resulted in 20 mature trees being cut and another 30 being damaged. McGehee indicated that forestry experts who looked into the matter believe the trees were cut at the latest in early 2014, before the Kaleses’ meeting with Waud to ask his permission to cut the trees.
The attorneys’ letters are filed as exhibits to the lawsuit in the Superior Court case file.
Contacted Monday, Katz disputed the Kaleses’ claim that the lawsuit was filed in retaliation to their complaint about gunfire noise.
“That suggestion is completely inaccurate,” Katz said. The sole reason for the case, he said, is that the Kaleses cut trees on Waud’s property “totally without permission.”
Katz added that he does not know why there has not been any gunfire noise coming from Waud’s property since last August, but he added that his client is a seasonal resident and may not have been at his MDI estate since then.
A message left for McGehee at her office was not returned Monday morning.
The Kaleses have filed a counterclaim against Waud, accusing him of abuse of process and of defamation. A prepared statement that Waud had sent out last fall to media outlets announcing the filing of his lawsuit amounted to a “defamatory press release,” McGehee wrote in court documents.
Legal demands made by Waud for specific records and information from the Kales are intended solely to harass the Kaleses, McGehee added. She wrote that the information and records demanded by Waud from her clients included, among other items their tax records, all communications over the past 10 years concerning their property and all corporate and trust records.
Mallonee set a deadline of Jan. 18, 2017, for the two sides to complete the discovery process on the remaining pending claims filed by each party.
