Dick Hill, left, and Clark Hill, center, talk with their attorney Benjamin Ford after he returned from Superior Court Justice Thomas McKeon chambers’ during the first day of trial in a dispute between the Hill family and the Tappens, a neighboring family that owns property along Popham Beach. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

WISCASSET — When Dick Hill’s and Richard Tappen’s children were growing up, they’d run up and down Popham Beach together while visiting their families’ cottages.

On Tuesday, the two men sat on opposite sides of a sunny courtroom at the start of a bench trial in Lincoln County Superior Court over who should have access to that same neighborhood beach.

The families own cottages in the Popham Beach Estates Subdivision and are suing each other over who is allowed to access the beach in front of their properties, which are separated by two vacant lots.

The Hill family, and those who rent their five cottages in the back of the neighborhood, use a footpath through those areas to get to the beach, which they argue is a public walkway. They said the beachfront has always been considered a common area.

But the Tappens say they are worried that allowing hundreds of renters to cross the property each year will result in further erosion on the beach. And, they argue, they bought the rights to 3 acres of beachfront between the properties and a roughly half-acre parcel next to the Hills, and the Hills’ renters have been trespassing on their beachfront.

In April, Superior Court Justice Thomas McKeon ruled that both families brought forth fair questions about land ownership and agreed to go to trial.

DISPUTED LAND

A wooden easel sat in the center of the courtroom Tuesday, displaying various maps of the Phippsburg subdivision that were referred to throughout the first day of arguments.

The parties spent a few hours discussing specifically where the property lines should be drawn and what is considered a beach. Along the sandy shoreline above the intertidal zone – the area between the ocean’s high and low tides – is “dry sand” and grassy sand dunes.

The Tappens called in two expert witnesses: a land surveyor and a real estate attorney.

The Tappens, whose cottage is on the left, say they bought the rights to the land that stretches in front of their property and past two vacant lots between their cottage and the Hill family cottage, on the right in this August 2023 photograph. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer, file

Real estate attorney Christopher Pazar testified that, in legal terms, a beach is defined as the intertidal zone. And from his interpretation of an 1893 map of the neighborhood, the property lines include the areas above the intertidal zone, which he said would not implicate a “common area” that the Hills argue has existed.

John Schwanda, the land surveyor, recently drew up a new plan of the subdivision, which featured a heavy black line indicating the Tappens’ property. That land includes a roughly half-acre, triangle-shaped lot directly next to the Hill family’s cottage and 3 acres of beach and dunes from their cottage to the Hills’ cottage.

The Tappens say they bought the 3.5 acres for $15,000 in 2021 from a now-deceased neighbor. Because a release deed declares the Tappens the rightful owners, they can exclude anyone from using it, their attorney Glenn Israel said in his opening statements.

The families agreed that the neighborhood has an “unwritten rule” to not use the beach in front of each family’s cottage. The Hill family directs their renters to sit by the empty lots, Clark Hill testified, but the Tappens said renters have been violating that rule.

SETTING PRECEDENT

The Hill family is focusing on the subdivision’s rich history, arguing that the beach area always has been free for everyone to use. Clark Hill’s grandparents built their family cottage in 1949 and they’ve used the beach for as long as they can remember, so it’s implied that the beach is a common area, their attorney Benjamin Ford said in opening statements.

Real estate attorney Christopher Pazar, an expert witness called by lawyers for the Tappen family, points to the disputed property area on an 1893 land survey during the first day of trial between the two Popham Beach property-owning families. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

In an interview Tuesday, Clark and Dick Hill pointed to a book called “One Man’s World, Popham Beach, Maine,” which showcases photos dating to the 1800s of people walking and even using a horse and buggy to cross the beach.

“Which direction is this going to move: where a beach is for people to come and enjoy, or a beach is something that can be bought and people can decide who is not allowed?” Clark Hill said.

Dick Hill said that the Tappens’ arguments are “insidious” and difficult for the public to understand. The Hills worry that if McKeon rules in their neighbor’s favor, it would put the whole neighborhood’s access to the beach in jeopardy and have bigger implications about beach access in Maine, Clark Hill said.

Clark Hill pages through a historical book about the village of Popham Beach during the first day of trial in Lincoln County Superior Court on Tuesday. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

“If Tappen wins, you’re about to set precedents that people can own, harass, kick people off (of beaches) … that can continue,” Clark Hill said. “If we win, it continues as it has been. We’re not going to kick people off; we’re not going to be harassing people.”

Richard Tappen and his attorney declined to speak about the case after the hearing Tuesday. Attorneys estimate the trial will last three days.