This story by Darren Marcy was first published in The White River Valley Herald on July 10.
A judge ruled Tuesday that towns in Vermont have the right to maintain their public trails on private land in the long-running lawsuit brought by a landowner against the town of Tunbridge, but the landowner in the case has promised an appeal to the state Supreme Court.
Though Superior Court Judge H. Dickson Corbett ruled against John Echeverria and Carin Pratt in the lawsuit they filed against the Town of Tunbridge, Echeverria, in an email Tuesday evening, promised a swift reply.
“We will be filing a prompt appeal to the Supreme Court,” Echeverria wrote.
The Tunbridge Selectboard got the good news at its regular meeting when a town resident announced the decision.
Board Chair Gary Mullen said the board was happy to hear the news and it was exactly what the board had expected all along.
Mullen said he wished the lawsuit and legal battle had never happened, but believed it was money well spent to protect trail access not only in Tunbridge but across Vermont.
“It was the right thing to do,” Mullen said. “It’s a win for the people of Tunbridge and the whole state. We plan to continue this battle however [Echeverria] decides to do it.”
Selectboard member Michael McPhetres praised the decision.
“I am very pleased with the court order,” McPhetres said. “We (the town of Tunbridge) have spent a lot of time and treasure on what is a common sense issue.”
The two sides have been haggling over who has the right to maintain legal trails on private land for years.
Tuesday’s 15-page order settled a few things including granting the town’s motion for summary judgment and denying the landowners’ motion for summary judgment.
In a final order issued separately, Corbett wrote, “Based upon the separate written ruling of the court, final judgment is hereby entered for defendant as follows: the Town of Tunbridge has the authority to maintain and repair its legal trails.”
But, if the decision is appealed to the Supreme Court, the case will go on for at least a little bit longer.
The case took a little bit of a back seat for a few months as the Vermont Legislature took up the issue.
A bill introduced in the Senate by Alison Clarkson, D-Woodstock, aiming to clarify that municipalities have the authority to maintain a legal trail stalled in committee, but the language was eventually added into the Transportation Bill, S.123, which had broad support from legislators and trails groups around Vermont, as well as the Vermont League of Cities and Towns.
The bill made its way through the Conference Committee process and was signed by Gov. Phil Scott in early June, despite a letter from Echeverria urging him to veto the measure.
In the Conference Committee, the bill’s effective date was delayed until April 1, 2026.
Meanwhile, the legal case has been going on for more than two and a half years, which is only the latest of a more than four-year controversy.
Echeverria and Pratt, who live in Strafford, filed a suit against Tunbridge to prevent it from conducting maintenance on the Orchard Trail, one of two legal trails that cross the 325-acre Dodge Farm, which Echeverria and Pratt own.
Twice the suit filed by the landowners was ruled by Orange County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Mann not to be “ripe,” or ready for the court to decide. But the second decision was overturned by the state Supreme Court.
Mann then recused herself and the case was assigned to Corbett.
Corbett’s ruling addresses a variety of arguments made by the landowners for reasons why the town should not be allowed to maintain the trails on their lands, but says, “the court determined that the arguments were either not persuasive or not relevant to its analysis and determinations.”
“The court’s final observation is that real-life experience has been that Vermont towns are maintaining their trails,” he continued. “More than 150 towns have at least one trail, and there are more than 540 miles of public trails in the state. And while at least some private landowners are helping maintain public trails, many towns are maintaining their trails to keep them open for public use. In other words, widespread contemporaneous interpretation has been that towns have the authority to maintain and repair their public trails … A reading of the statutes that authorizes towns to maintain and repair their public trails would be consistent with more than a century of both legal precedent and practical experience.”
