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.
