Robert F. Almeder v. Town of Kennebunkport
2019 ME 151 (2019)
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Rule of Law:
When colonial proprietors held common land in trust for a town's inhabitants and dissolved without granting out a specific parcel, title to that ungranted land vests in the successor municipal corporation for the public's benefit. A property boundary described in a foundational deed as running 'to the sea wall' establishes the seawall as a monument, thereby severing ownership of the beach from the upland property.
Facts:
- In 1684, Thomas Danforth, on behalf of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, issued the Danforth Deed, granting a tract of land including what is now Goose Rocks Beach to three trustees for the 'sole use and benefit of the Inhabitants of the Town of Cape Porpus' (now Kennebunkport).
- These trustees and their successors, known as the Town proprietors, were responsible for granting tracts of this common land to settlers.
- The foundational deeds for the Beachfront Owners' properties, originating in the 18th and 19th centuries, described the seaward boundary of the properties as running 'to the sea wall' or 'by the sea wall.'
- A natural, elevated embankment of land exists along Goose Rocks Beach, landward of the mean high water mark, that functions as a seawall.
- Around 1790, the Town proprietors ceased operations and transferred their records to the Town Clerk.
- The proprietors' records contain no evidence of a grant or layout conveying ownership of the beach itself into private hands before the proprietary dissolved.
- Many of the modern deeds in the Beachfront Owners' chains of title contain calls to the 'ocean' or 'sea' that were not present in the original, foundational deeds for their properties.
Procedural Posture:
- In October 2009, Robert F. Almeder and other Beachfront Owners filed a complaint in Maine Superior Court (trial court) against the Town of Kennebunkport to quiet title to the beach.
- The Town filed counterclaims asserting its own title and public use rights, and the State of Maine intervened.
- The trial court bifurcated the trial, first addressing use-related claims.
- Following a 2012 trial, the Superior Court found the public had an easement by prescription and custom, a decision the Beachfront Owners appealed.
- In a prior decision (Almeder I, 2014), the Maine Supreme Judicial Court (highest court) vacated that judgment and remanded the case for the trial court to decide the underlying title claims first.
- The Superior Court held an eleven-day bench trial on the title claims in late 2016.
- On April 6, 2018, the Superior Court ruled that the Town holds title to the disputed beach area. The Beachfront Owners, as appellants, appealed this final judgment to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
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Issue:
Does the Town of Kennebunkport hold title to the intertidal zone and dry sand area seaward of the 'seawall' when the Beachfront Owners' original deeds list the 'seawall' as their seaward boundary and the Town's claim of title derives from ungranted common lands once held by colonial proprietors?
Opinions:
Majority - Humphrey, J.
Yes, the Town of Kennebunkport holds title to the disputed land because the Beachfront Owners' deeds do not extend beyond the seawall, and the ungranted common land of the beach passed to the Town by operation of law. The court's reasoning has two main parts. First, it determines the Beachfront Owners' property boundaries. The interpretation of a deed must give effect to the intent of the original parties. The foundational deeds for these properties explicitly use the 'seawall' as the seaward boundary. The court defines 'seawall' as a natural or man-made embankment landward of the beach that acts as a monument. A call to such a monument defeats the Colonial Ordinance presumption that an upland owner owns to the low-water mark. Later deeds in the chain of title adding calls to the 'ocean' cannot convey more property than the original grantor owned. Second, the court establishes the Town's title. The Danforth Deed of 1684 granted the common lands, including the beach, to proprietors to hold in trust for the Town's inhabitants. The historical record shows the proprietors never granted the beach to any private party. When the proprietary dissolved around 1790, its purpose of settling the town was complete, and title to any remaining common lands held for public benefit, such as the beach, vested in the Town as the successor municipal corporation.
Analysis:
This decision significantly clarifies the ownership status of ungranted common lands originating from colonial proprietaries in Maine, establishing that title vests in the successor town upon the proprietary's dissolution. It reinforces the paramount importance of foundational deeds in title disputes, holding that later, inconsistent deed language cannot expand a property's original boundaries. The case also provides a definitive legal definition of 'seawall' as a controlling boundary monument, which will impact future coastal property disputes by solidifying how such calls are interpreted to sever beach ownership from upland parcels.
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