Court turns down appeals by Carmel gravel pit owner

CARMEL – Separate court decisions Friday dealt legal blows to the case of Carmel resident and gravel pit owner Earle McSorley, who has sought intervention in a long-standing battle with the town over repairs many believe are required in order to reopen the Horseback Road, which links U.S. Route 2 and Route 222.

Penobscot County Superior Court Justice Jeffrey Hjelm denied a request for a preliminary injunction made by McSorley and Carmel resident Sharrlyn B. Parsons. The injunction would have forced the town to put an article in the warrant for the annual town meeting on March 4. The article, essentially, would have relieved McSorley of some financial obligations and would have banned the town from filing further legal proceedings against him regarding upgrades and repairs officials want him to make on portions of the Horseback Road abutting his gravel pit.

In a separate decision Friday, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court denied appeals filed by McSorley seeking relief from two contempt judgments issued against him in 1999 and 2000 at Penobscot County Superior Court. The judgments determined that McSorley had not complied with orders to refill and regrade the pit area and levied fines.

The Law Court also denied McSorley’s appeal of a Newport District Court decision in 1997 that determined the location of the town’s public easement on the Horseback Road. The easement determination figured into determining grade and slope on the road.

Bangor attorney Arthur J. Greif, who represents McSorley and Parsons, said he planned to seek a court order that would require the town to hold a special town meeting to deal specifically with the rejected warrant article.

Greif said the state court decision was “more of a technical defeat.” He said the final ruling still could go in his clients’ favor.

Hjelm found that McSorley, who had the biggest stake in the request, had not filed his court papers in time, and that Parsons had filed papers in time but has no legal standing in the matter.

Greif said both of his clients have stakes in the issue, which has divided the small Penobscot County town.

“The game is not over,” said Greif. The attorney said he expects more oral arguments once he files additional legal briefs. If his arguments prevail, it would mean a special town meeting would have to be scheduled within 60 days of the court’s decision, Greif said.

The article that sought to be in the town warrant would have acknowledged that McSorley had “labored extensively” to make a portion of the Horseback Road safe for travel. It would have deemed that if McSorley installed a guardrail, that would complete the repairs required of him and the road would be deemed safe for traffic. The article called on the town to cease further court proceedings and ordered the return of property to McSorley acquired in the town’s efforts to enforce previous court orders.

The “relief McSorley seeks here is to countermand the adverse findings and orders entered against him by the court,” Hjelm wrote in a 12-page decision. “Despite the courts’ conclusions to the contrary, the proposed article would acknowledge the sufficiency of his efforts to remediate the condition of his property.”

“It would neutralize the remedies and coercive sanctions that the court has fashioned in an effort to extract compliance from McSorley, and it would deprive the town of any rights it has under Maine law to secure further compliance,” Hjelm wrote.

“Although the issue … relates to the inclusion of the proposed article in the town warrant, this court cannot ignore the ultimate purpose of the article and its effects on prior court orders,” Hjelm wrote.

McSorley’s wife, Glennis McSorley, on Friday called both decisions “another blow for the McSorleys.”

Parsons said she was “extremely disappointed” in both decisions.

On the state court ruling, Parsons said Hjelm “took the right of the voters to [decide] this issue away from us, and we have that right under the Constitution.”

Parsons said her losses are twofold regarding the road and denied the judge’s assertion that she has no legal standing in the matter. She has used the Horseback Road often to reach her parents’ home in Milo and to make certain appointments. The road figured prominently in many Operation Liftoff horseback rides she has organized to benefit seriously ill children, according to Parsons. “I used the road often and I am a taxpayer,” Parsons asserted.

Parsons helped circulate petitions last year to get the article included in the town warrant. Though she obtained a sufficient number of signatures, selectmen denied the request in December 2000.

Town Manager Tom Richmond said Friday he was “happy the courts ruled in the town’s favor and that both the state supreme court case and the Superior Court case acknowledge the selectmen were correct in not putting an article in the town warrant.”