2023 Maine Revised Statutes › TITLE 23: TRANSPORTATION › Part 3: LOCAL HIGHWAY LAW › Chapter 304: ACQUISITION OF PROPERTY FOR HIGHWAY PURPOSES › 23 §3027-A. Recording of vacation orders; rights of action; prior orders

§3027-A. Recording of vacation orders; rights of action; prior orders
1.  Recording of vacation order.
A copy of the order of vacation by the municipal officers entered under section 3027 shall be recorded in the registry of deeds where the plan of subdivision is recorded and shall contain an alphabetical listing of the names of the subdivision lot owners and their mortgagees of record whose interests may be affected by the order. The register of deeds shall make a cross-reference to the order of vacation upon or attached to the face of the subdivision plan. The register of deeds shall also index the order under the names of the lot owners whose names appear in the body of the order. Any order of vacation entered prior to the effective date of this section may be recorded by the municipal officers in the same manner and with the same effect set forth in this section.
[PL 1981, c. 683, §3 (NEW).]
2.  Rights of action.
All persons are forever barred from maintaining any action at law or in equity to establish, recover, confirm or otherwise enforce any right claimed to or in a proposed or described vacated way by reason of the ownership by the claimant or by a predecessor in title of a lot or parcel of land shown on a recorded subdivision plan, unless, within one year of the date of recordation of the order of vacation, the claimant files in the registry of deeds where the subdivision plan is recorded a statement under oath specifying the nature, basis and extent of the claimed interest in the way. The claim is forever barred unless, within 180 days after the recording of the statement, the claimant or any other person acting on behalf of the claimant commences an action in equity under Title 14, chapter 723, to establish the rights asserted to or in the way. These limitation periods are not tolled or interrupted by any disability, minority, lack of knowledge or absence from this State of any claimant. Upon the trial of an action, the court shall grant judgment for the claimant only if it finds that the claimant has acquired an interest in the proposed way and that the deprivation of rights in the proposed way unreasonably limits access from a public way, a public body of water or common land or facility to the land of the claimant shown on the recorded subdivision plan. Any judgment rendered by the court in the action may, in the discretion of the court, grant the claimant reasonable damages instead of establishment of the claimant's rights.
[RR 2013, c. 2, §34 (COR).]
3.  Prior orders.
A person claiming an interest in a proposed unaccepted way vacated under section 3027 prior to the effective date of this section may cause an attested copy of that order to be recorded in the registry of deeds where the subdivision plan describing or showing the way is recorded. That person shall append to the order to be recorded an alphabetical listing of the names of the current subdivision lot owners and their mortgagees of record whose interest in the way may be affected by the order. The register of deeds shall also index the order under the names of the lot owners appearing in the appendix.
Within 20 days of the recording of a prior order, the person causing the order to be recorded shall give notice of the person's claim to all current owners of lots on the subdivision plan and their mortgagees of record by mailing by the United States Postal Service, postage prepaid, a notice informing them of the person's claim and advising them that, to preserve any claim adverse to the person's, they must file a claim and commence an action as required by subsection 2. The notice must conform in substance to the following form:
NOTICE
On ______________ , 19___, the municipal officers of _________________ (Name of Town or City) entered an order vacating the following (ways) (way) shown upon a subdivision plan (named) (dated) (and) recorded in the _________________ Registry of Deeds Book of Plans, Volume______, Page _____.
(Herein list vacated ways)
The undersigned claims to own the (ways) (way) described above. A copy of the order of the municipal officers was recorded in the Registry of Deeds on ____________, 19___, and any person claiming an interest in (these ways) (this way) adverse to the claims of the undersigned must, within one (1) year of the date of the recording of the above order, file a written claim under oath in the Registry of Deeds and must, within one hundred eighty (180) days thereafter, commence an action in the Superior Court in ______________ County in accordance with the Revised Statutes, Title 23, section 3027‑A.
[RR 2015, c. 1, §24 (COR).]
4.  Applicability.
This section applies to ways described or shown in recorded subdivision plans proposed before and after the effective date of this section.
[PL 1981, c. 683, §3 (NEW).]
SECTION HISTORY
PL 1981, c. 683, §3 (NEW). RR 2013, c. 2, §34 (COR). RR 2015, c. 1, §24 (COR).