FARMINGTON — An 11-year-long land access dispute between Strong neighbors has come to an end after a Franklin County Superior Court judge upheld two previous court rulings this month.
The Voter and Lambert families have been in disagreement about who has the right of access to Dickey Road, a woods road that runs across the Lamberts’ property directly in front of their home and has been used by the Voter family to reach landlocked property they own.
In 2013, the Lamberts filed a contempt of court lawsuit against the Voters for violating a 2008 Maine Supreme Judicial Court decision. The lawsuit resulted in a three-day September hearing and a Nov. 10 decision, which would be the final fight in a legal battle that started in 2004.
Judge William R. Stokes ruled Nov. 10 that the Voters no longer may use Dickey Road. The Voter family also was fined $10,000 to compensate the Lamberts for damage caused by traffic to the road and “loss of enjoyment” suffered by the Lamberts. The Voters have been ordered to pay all of the Lambert family’s attorney fees in the case since 2009. Two members of the Voter family, Milton and James Voter, live in Connecticut and were dismissed from the proceedings.
Stokes also ordered the Voters to terminate the leases on Dickey Road property bought by Wendall Voter in 2009 within 30 days of the Nov. 10 ruling or face a $500-per-day fine, ruling they violated a 2008 court injunction that forbade them or their heirs from gaining access to Dickey Road.
Stokes said in his ruling, “The court is satisfied by clear and convincing evidence, that the Voters, and Wendall Voter and Eunice Voter Shurtleff in particular, failed and refused to comply with the order and judgment of May 14, 2008.”
Dickey Road, which leads to the New Vineyard Mountains, was discontinued 60 years ago by the town of Strong, but no rights of way were established. However, under state law, when a road is discontinued, the property owners on the road are granted right of way.
The Lamberts long had a friendly relationship with the Voters — both families live on Church Hill Road, which ends at Dickey Road — and allowed them casual access to Dickey Road and two other woods roads that ran off it. The Voters’ property is landlocked, and Dickey Road allowed the most direct access to 200 acres of woodland and family lots owned by the Voters.
Brothers Milton, James, and Wendall Voter, along with their sister Eunice Voter Shurtleff, all own property east of the Lamberts’ land. Their father, Vernon Voter, has a lifetime lease on property southeast of the Lamberts. The parcels were referred to as back lots during the court proceedings and are used by the Voter family for hunting and recreation.
In 2004, Roger Lambert noticed a “tremendous amount of traffic on the Dickey Road by individuals who were apparently part of Eunice Voter Shurtleff’s family,” the court documents said.
Lambert learned from Shurtleff that she and her family were building a camp on her back lot, according to court documents, and told Shurtleff that they needed to talk about right of way in order for the Voters to continue crossing his property via Dickey Road. However, Shurtleff said she did not need permission to use that road or the other woods roads on the Lambert property.
In the 2005 article, the Lamberts’ attorney, Frank Underkuffler, said the Voters “are trying to subdivide their back land and channel the traffic onto somebody else’s property.” He added they are also crossing the back of Lambert’s lot on a logging road that was never a public way.
In a 2005 Morning Sentinel story, the Voters’ lawyer, Steven Chute, said the family had used Dickey Road for more than 20 years and under state law that gave them the “prescriptive right” to keep using it.
After learning about the Shurtleff camp, Lambert hired Underkuffler to do a title search to determine whether the Voters had right of way or other authority to use the roads that ran across his property.
Lambert also visited Wendall Voter and his wife to tell them that he had contacted an attorney regarding the right-of-way dispute.
“Mr. Lambert described his visit to Mr. and Mrs. Voter as the ‘hardest walk’ he ever made,” the court documents said. “Mr. Lambert explained that there was an issue between them involving their shared respect for each other’s privacy. The meeting was not hostile and there was general agreement between them concerning some of the points made by Mr. Lambert, but no resolution of the central issue concerning the use of the Dickey Road and other woods roads.”
After performing the search, Underkuffler sent a letter to a member of the Voter family in July 2004 that said according to Underkuffler’s legal findings, there was no public easement over Dickey Road or the two other woods roads, and that the Voters did not have an express or implied right of way across the Lamberts’ property.
In 2005, several members of the Voter family hired Chute to file a lawsuit against the Lamberts, claiming they had the right of access to and use of roads.
Chute said in the 2005 article that Ira Voter had bought a large tract of land in 1935 that included the Dickey Road easement. The Voter land has since been subdivided among family members.
In May 2008, it was ruled that the Voters had neither easements nor right of access to Dickey Road or the other two woods roads. In her 2008 ruling, Franklin County Superior Court Judge Michaela Murphy also issued an injunction barring the Voters and any of their heirs from attempting to gain access to the road.
An appeal to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court by the Voters was rejected in December 2008.
In 2009, Wendall Voter bought a 3.6-acre lot on Dickey Road and hired attorney Ron Aseltine to execute the deed, which included permanent leases for 38 of his relatives.
With the purchase of the lot also came the right of access to Dickey Road, and in 2013 Shurtleff began building a camp on the property. Aseltine did not return calls immediately seeking comment Tuesday.
After the camp’s construction, the Lamberts filed a contempt of court lawsuit arguing that the Voters had violated the 2008 court ruling that barred them from gaining access to the Dickey Road.
That lawsuit culminated in September’s hearing and the Nov. 10 ruling.
Lauren Abbate — 861-9252
Twitter: @Lauren_M_Abbate
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