OWLS HEAD, Maine — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday ruled that the state could not be held liable for its actions in 2013 when it took over a man’s property in Owls Head, sold it at half its market value and euthanized his cat.
The court ruled in favor of the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday, the latest in a years-long legal battle waged by William Dean’s family, who sued the state after it took the Owls Head man’s property while he was being treated at a state-run psychiatric hospital.
The state, which acted as public conservator over Dean’s property for the six months after he was admitted, sold Dean’s property for 40 percent of its assessed worth, damaged many of his personal belongings by allowing his water pipes to burst and mold to spread throughout the house, sold his Cadillac and euthanized his cat, Caterpillar, his family said. The state claimed it sold Dean’s property to pay back outstanding taxes.
Pam Vose, Dean’s cousin, and Claire Perry, his sister, filed two lawsuits in the state’s Business and Consumer Court in Portland in 2015. The state claimed that it had immunity from the negligent claims asserted by Dean’s family.
Maine Attorney General Janet Mills filed a motion for summary judgement the state’s favor in May 2015. In December, Justice Andrew Horton of the Maine Business and Consumer Court ruled that both lawsuits filed by the Dean family could go forward, and the state filed an appeal with the state Supreme Judicial court.
The panel of judges ruled that the state could not be held responsible under the Maine Tort Claims act, according to the March 2 decision. But had the state purchased liability insurance for Dean’s property, it would have waived its immunity rights and be held liable for the damage done to the home.
Pam Vose, Dean’s cousin, chose not to comment on the court’s ruling Thursday. Dean’s attorney David Jennings could not be reached.
Dean, owner of the oceanfront Owls Head property in question, was admitted to the Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in 2012 following the death of his mother, and the state took over as public conservator of his property in 2013.
The state sold Dean’s two-story house for $205,000 that same year, although the town had assessed its worth at more than twice that amount, nearly $476,840, just months before.
DHHS also failed to disclose a full accounting of what happened to Dean’s numerous personal and family heirloom items, including expensive musical instruments.
Dean’s cousin, Pam Vose, unsuccessfully tried to block the sale of Dean’s home.
Dean, who died in October, recalled being “not very happy about,” the selling of his house for less than what he was worth when he spoke with the Bangor Daily News in 2015. When he found out his cat was euthanized, Dean said he got “very emotional. I got her from a shelter. She picked me out.”
Vose is now conservator of Dean’s other house in Rockland, and is in the process of becoming executor of Dean’s estate, she confirmed Thursday.
The Rockland City Council last week voted unanimously to waive lien foreclosures on Dean’s Rockland property.