The trial has been postponed for a lawsuit seeking to force the sale of a sliver of working waterfront on Orr’s Island known as Barleyfield Point.
A three-day bench trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday, Nov. 29, but has been rescheduled for 8:30 a.m., Tuesday, Jan. 9, according to court documents. In a bench trial, a judge decides the outcome instead of a jury.
A spokesperson for the courts said parties involved in the case mutually agreed to postpone the trial after one of the defendants filed a crossclaim in August. The crossclaim, filed by co-defendant Craig Ramsay, seeks to resolve an alleged boundary dispute related to the case.
Numerous co-owners of Barleyfield Point, which has been treated as a public amenity for generations, may be forced to sell their shares if plaintiff and property co-owner John E. “Jack” Sylvester Jr., of Orr’s Island, prevails in the case.
Sylvester wants to become the site’s sole owner, according to court documents. Nearby residents have said they fear such a result would mean the end of public access for storage of fishing gear, as well as swimming, recreational fishing, picnics, and other longtime community uses for the property.
The property is fractionally owned by at least 16 people, including Sylvester, according to a lawsuit filed in spring 2022 in Cumberland County Superior Court and later transferred to the Maine Business and Consumer Court. The site is a narrow, rocky projection into Lowell’s Cove that was conveyed by its original owners to 12 local residents in the late 1800s.
The property owners are “tenants in common,” which means each of them owns a share of the entire property and can sell or give away their share without permission from the other co-owners, similar to shareholders in a company.
Fractional shares in the roughly one-third-acre parcel have been passed down through the generations, with Sylvester owning the largest share of about one-third of the property at the time he filed suit. Defendants named in the legal complaint own shares ranging from one-ninth to 1/36th of the site.
Sylvester is asking the court to force the other co-owners to sell their shares to him, arguing that the property is “unmanaged, unsecured and in deteriorating condition” with too many owners to manage effectively.
The lawsuit has drawn criticism from some area residents and a local working waterfront advocate who said such cases threaten the future viability of “discreet” wharves that remain vital to small commercial fishing operations in Maine.
In court filings, defendants in the case have disputed some of Sylvester’s claims and argued that there is no compelling legal reason to force them to sell property their families have owned, used, and paid taxes on for generations.
Ramsay, the co-defendant who filed the crossclaim, has told the court that any forced sale of the property would be premature because of an ongoing boundary dispute involving Barleyfield Point and an abutting property owned by Sylvester.
Sylvester has claimed the border of his adjacent land overlaps part of a dock owned by Ramsay on Barleyfield Point, which Ramsay disputes.
