A state judge has ruled in favor of the town of Brooksville in its long-simmering legal dispute with a local marina owner.
Jon Buck, owner of Buck’s Harbor Marina, filed two claims against the town with the state’s business and consumer court in 2022. One claim alleged the town unfairly targeted his marina after a yacht tied up to a mooring without permission and then was dragged by foul weather into another boat. The other was a tort claim seeking monetary damages against the town.
The court dismissed Buck’s claims last month, but Buck has appealed those decisions to the state Supreme Judicial Court, according to town officials.
“The decisions of the business court validate the actions of the Brooksville harbormaster and the harbor committee,” Brooksvillle officials said Monday. “The town is confident the business court’s decisions will be upheld by the Maine Law Court.”
Buck did not respond Monday to requests for comment.
In August 2020, after the boats collided, the town sent a notice accusing the marina of violating the harbor ordinance because the offending yacht was too large for its mooring and dragged it. Buck countered that the yacht’s operator had tied up without the marina’s approval and the resulting damage was minor.
That fall, Buck signed a written agreement with the town on how to resolve the dispute, but officials later said he violated that agreement.
Justice Thomas McKeon, presiding in the business court, dismissed Buck’s claims, saying that he did not file a timely legal challenge, and that actions taken by local officials to enforce the mooring ordinance were legal and appropriate.
Buck decided against reopening the marina in 2023 and instead put it on the market.
Town officials are “more than willing to work with Bucks Harbor Marina in order for it to open and operate in compliance with the Brooksville Harbor Ordinance for the 2024 boating season,” they said on Monday.
The property remains listed for sale by Christie’s International Real Estate for $1,825,000.