A Superior Court judge dismissed, in part, the Pownal Center Community Church’s complaint against the town in an ongoing property rights dispute.
Through a lawsuit filed in April, representatives from the church aimed to shed light on the property rights of the historic building established in 1790 and connected land, and called for the town to renounce any outstanding ownership claims to the property.
In the July 2 ruling, Judge David Barra asserted the church failed to demonstrate sufficient rights to the congregation’s site of worship for all but the carriage shed adjoining the property.
The church has 30 days to amend the complaint to bring forth “factual allegations” and better explain the “‘inherent vagueness and complexities of title to land in Vermont’ that may entitle (the) Church to relief or quiet title,” according to the ruling.
In the original complaint filed April 4 by attorney Evan Chadwick, the church claimed it had rights to the property because it had continuously used the building for more than 15 years.
Chadwick further argued that the church held legal rights to the property going back to 1790, when the church was first established, as the land was set aside as a glebe, or parcel for the Church of England, in 1760.
The town stopped using the church basement for meetings in 1991 and built a municipal office in 2021. The church has maintained the property since 1951 and held insurance on the property since 1980, according to the complaint.
Chadwick also pointed to the church trustees’ and Pownal community’s possession of a deed to the carriage shed on the southwest corner of the property since 1905, according to the complaint. The town refused to sign a quitclaim deed for the carriage shed property in 1976, agreeing that the town “held no title interest” in that section of the property.
In the July ruling, Barra wrote that the “Church has only stated a plausible claim for the ‘carriage shed’ portion of the Property.”
Barra ruled that the assertion of the property as glebe land does not mean the church has a legal right to the entire property. The church also did not establish a legal claim under the state’s time limit for land recovery and exemption of public lands from recuperation through continuous use, Barra ruled.
Pownal town officials and Chadwick declined to comment.
