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The Town of Oriental has filed a lawsuit in a long-running land dispute right on the Oriental harbor. The case could determine if the public has access to another site on waterfront.

At issue is ownership of the last 60 feet of South Avenue between the existing South Avenue pavement and the Oriental harbor. Passersby right now see only an overgrown patch of land scattered with old marine railway ties and bordered by a chain link fence.

The town maintains that a private citizen illegally put up that fence and the land is the end of South Avenue and by rights, town property.

“It’s about getting clear title to a public street” says the town’s attorney, Scott Davis who filed the case in Superior Court last Thursday. That same day, the town laid gravel between the existing paved part of South Avenue up to the chain link fence. It is that land and the land behind the fence that is in dispute.

Town Manager Wyatt Cutler shows the gravel put down Thursday

One of the defendants named in the suit is Lacy Henry. The other is Mayor Sherrill Styron.

According to the lawsuit, the town leased that 60’x60’ plot of land to Lacy Henry from 1974 through 1995. The leasing arrangement ended because the town was advised that, by law, it should not be in the business of leasing town streets to private citizens.

That’s when the current battle began. Attorney Scott Davis says that after being told he could no longer rent the land from the town, Lacy Henry filed a ‘quitclaim deed’ in April of 1995. He was essentially claiming that land to be his. A year later, says Davis, a chain link fence went up that has blocked the public’s access to the land and waterfront.

There the case remained for awhile. With a small budget for legal matters, the town did not pursue the ownership question or press Lacy Henry about that waterfront property. Then a few years ago, it came to the town’s attention that Lacy Henry was seeking a CAMA permit to build 8 slips off of that land. The town began preparing court papers.

The Town’s Case

Oriental’s suit cites one of the earliest town meetings in1899 where a laying out of streets was ordered. Another part of the town’s case is a 1900 map that showing that "South Avenue extends in a westerly direction to Raccoon Creek" which is today known as the Oriental Harbor. A 1911 deed offered in the suit mentions waterfront property being bordered by South Avenue" which it could only be if South Avenue extended to the water.

Some arcane law regarding unpaved street ends may come in to play. As such the town is making its case with records of another sort as well.

The town’s suit offers evidence that the town of Oriental leased the land "at the foot of South Avenue" for the better part of 6 decades. Records of leasing arrangements go back to as early as 1937. In the mid-50’s Garland Fulcher is on record leasing the waterfront land for a dollar a year. Beginning in 1951, Lacy Henry’s family is mentioned leasing the "terminus of South Avenue" from the Town of Oriental off and on according to minutes of a town meeting cited in the lawsuit.

Scott Davis says the most persuasive argument on the town’s side is that for many years, "the town has leased that land out. How could it be leasing it if it didn’t own it?" In that same line of thinking, Davis notes that defendant Lacy Henry "tried to buy that land in the mid-80’s" from the town of Oriental. The town’s case raises the question of how Henry could later lay claim to land that he once tried — and failed — to buy.

Mayor Drawn Into Case As Defendent

Lacy Henry, who now lives in Morehead City is not the only defendant in the town’s lawsuit. Also cited is Sherrill Styron, owner of Garland Fulcher Seafood, and Mayor of Oriental.

Garland Fulcher, who had been an adjacent landowner, laid claim to a small triangle of that land in dispute. Fulcher, the founder of the seafood plant that bears his name died in the mid-90’s as the dispute was heating up. He willed his adjacent waterfront lot to Mayor Sherrill Styron. Styron, who now owns the seafood plant, says he also ‘inherited’ the disputed triangle of land.

All of which puts the Mayor in a peculiar position.

"They had no choice but to sue the Mayor," Styron says of the lawsuit to claim the property as the town’s. "It would have looked some kind of bad if the town didn’t."

Mayor Sherrill Styron shows TownDock.net the disputed property

As for his view of the case, Sherrill Styron says, “I think the town owns it. I hope they win.” He does not plan to fight the town’s claim in court.

While the Mayor is of the view that the town owns the land — both his triangular piece and Lacy Henry’s larger portion — Sherrill Styron is not ready just yet to give up his claim. He says he is waiting to hear what a judge rules because of the possibility of the judge could decide against the town in which case his co-defendant could keep the land that he claims.

Waterfront Property

Attorney Scott Davis says the town has spent at least $5,000 pursuing the case. At stake is a toehold on the Oriental waterfront.

As land goes, the parcel is not big enough to build anything upon but the 60’x60’ lot does give access to the Oriental harbor. There is some discussion that when this lawsuit is settled, and if it is settled in the town’s favor, a boat ramp for small boats or another Town Dock could find a home at the end of South Avenue.

Posted Sunday March 9, 2003 by Keith N. Smith