OWLS HEAD, Maine — The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to consider an appeal from seasonal residents who sought to block the public from crossing their property to get to a local beach, bringing their five-year legal battle to an end.
The highest court in the land on Monday denied a petition by Darlene and Lewis Edwards III of Saugerties, New York, to have the court hear their appeal of a Maine Supreme Judicial Court decision issued in December 2015.
The federal Supreme Court gave no reason for denying the petition. The high court takes only about 1 percent of cases.
The couple’s attorney, Glenn Israel, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Thank goodness it’s finally over,” Owls Head’s attorney William Dale said Wednesday.
The denial to consider the case supports the town’s contention, upheld in state courts, that it has a public easement over the property.
The town spent more than $100,000 on the five-year legal challenge.
The Edwardses had claimed the paved area on their Coopers Beach Road property is their driveway and that neither the town nor their neighbors have the right to use it to reach Rockland Harbor.
They bought the waterfront property in March 2011 and filed the lawsuit in November 2011 to block their neighbors from crossing their property and also to challenge the town’s public easement, which allows the municipality to plow and sand the road.
In a July 2014 decision, Maine Superior Court Justice Jeffrey Hjelm concluded that “homeowners, both year-round and seasonal, have developed strong friendships with each other. As an aspect of the relationships among them, they sometimes walk on or otherwise use each other’s property. Families visited with each other, and there were neighborhood parties and events.”
In their petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Edwardses argued that the high court needed to clarify the law regarding the constitutionality of state court decisions that eliminate or impinge upon existing private property rights.
The issue of access to Maine waterfront property has been a contentious issue around the state.
A Corea couple have filed an appeal to the Maine supreme court to get access to the waterfront after their neighbors said they could no longer cross their property to reach a beach.
Belfast wrestled with the issue during an August City Council meeting on whether to make improvements to a city right-of-way that leads to the ocean.
Owls Head residents voted in April to purchase a lot on the waterfront to ensure commercial fishing access to Owls Head Harbor.
Harpswell voters approved spending money in 2013 to ensure access to the water. Residents in that town also went to court to ensure access to a beach.