Opinion ID: 3166759
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The 1986 Dedication and Acceptance

Text: [¶7] From 1973 to 1986, the Town of Owls Head (the Town) hired contractors to sand and snowplow Coopers Beach Road, which was then a private road composed of four separate branches. During this period, the Town included in its winter maintenance of Coopers Beach Road the way and cul-de-sac located on the Edwardses’ property. After learning that it was not allowed to expend public funds to maintain private roads, the Town announced its intent to cease plowing private roads at the end of the 1985 to 1986 winter season. [¶8] In 1986, twenty-two individuals signed a two-page petition proposing that the Town accept the dedication of “Coopers Beach Road” as a public easement. The petition’s first page identified its signatories as “owners of property consisting of Coopers Beach Road.” The petition’s second page identified a different group of signatories as “abutting property owners on Coopers Beach Road.” Five individuals signed the first page and seventeen signed the second. [¶9] In 1986, John McLoon owned the property that is now owned by the Edwardses. When the dedication petition was circulating, a Town official spoke with McLoon about the petition’s purpose and consequences. The official told McLoon that if the road were accepted as a public easement, the Town would continue to plow and sand it, and others would be allowed to use it. The official 5 explained that McLoon would need to sign the petition if he wanted the road to be dedicated, and McLoon signed the petition’s second page.3 [¶10] In August 1986, the Town held a special meeting to vote on the acceptance of multiple public easement roads, and voters accepted the dedication of public easements over ten private roads, including Coopers Beach Road. Since that vote, the Town has treated the way and cul-de-sac located on the Edwardses’ property in the same manner that it has treated all parts of the network of roads that were formerly collectively called Coopers Beach Road. [¶11] The record also supports the following facts, which were found by the court in an order entered on May 7, 2013. [¶12] In 1996, the Town voted to approve the 1986 acceptance of a public easement over Coopers Beach Road. Available at the 1996 meeting were tax maps that a selectman had “marked to depict the location of the Cooper’s Beach Road dedication based on his understanding of the 1986 acceptance.” One of these maps was admitted as an exhibit at trial and shows a hand-drawn line (beginning at lot 57) that runs the length of Coopers Beach Road and extends over the way and cul-de-sac located on the Edwardses’ property (lot 67).4 3 Titcomb’s predecessor-in-title did not sign any part of the petition. 4 At trial, Darlene Edwards and her title expert both testified that the Town’s tax map shows the Edwardses’ property at lot 67, the Titcomb property at lot 68, and the Scotts’ property at lot 58-2. 6 [¶13] To assist the reader, we include a black and white copy of that tax map below.