Public oversand vehicle access over a stretch of trail on Chappaquiddick was halted this week after the latest ruling in an ongoing court battle between Cape Pogue homeowners and the Trustees of Reservations.
State Land Court judge Sarah Turano-Flores on Monday granted Victor and Dawn Colantonio a preliminary injunction that prevents the Trustees, which manages the trails that criss-cross Chappy, from allowing the public to drive over the Colantonios’ land just north of Tom’s Neck.
The question of who is allowed to take their four-wheel drive vehicles over which easements has been a contentious topic in recent years. The Colantonios sued the Trustees in 2022, claiming the conservation nonprofit did not have the right to sell permits to the public to drive out to some of the northernmost sections of Cape Pogue.
Monday’s ruling was based on easements going back 135 years, and came after the judge last month said that the Trustees had already overstepped what was allowed under an 1800s easement.
The preliminary injunction stops the Trustees from allowing oversand vehicle permit holders from crossing the trails north of an area known as Division Lot 1 until the overall case is decided. A trial is scheduled for March 2027.
Public access to the trails that lead to Chappy’s beaches has been a contentious issue in recent years, resulting in several legal complaints and testy public hearings.
Access for the area in question in the Colantonio lawsuit remains open by foot or by boat. Other parts of Chappaquiddick, including Leland Beach and the area north of the Dike Bridge before the lot, will remain open to oversand vehicles.
In a statement Tuesday, the Trustees called the ruling disappointing but vowed to continue fighting for public access to the trail.
“This action by the Court will curtail OSV operations at [Cape Pogue], limiting access to this extraordinary place for Chappaquiddick residents and visitors for the first time since 1959,” the nonprofit wrote. “While this is a deeply disappointing outcome for everyone, The Trustees will continue working to provide meaningful access to this special place.”
The Colantonios’ lawyer Denise Chicoine appreciated the judge’s ruling.
“The Trustees were behaving as a business, not a conservation entity by treating Cape Poge as a means of raising revenue,” she said. “The preliminary injunction is an appropriate restraint and is the right decision from an environmental perspective. The Trustees can use their own tour trucks to provide members of the public with access to the lighthouse.”
The Trustees had tried to argue that the trail in question on Division Lot 1 was not actually the trail that was being referred to in the 1891 easement. Instead, the trails being used now, the Trustees contended, were part of a 1988 easement, which did allow for wider use.
But Judge Turano-Flores was not convinced by the argument.
“The Trustees point to no survey, plan or photographic evidence to support their claim that the network of OSV trails that traverse Division Lot 1, including the primary trail, are not in the same location as” the trail in the 1891 easement, the judge wrote.
The court also reasoned that, since only a few dozen or so people traverse the trails up to the area by the Colantonios, it would not cause widespread harm to the Trustees.
“As the Trustees note in their opposition, most of the OSV permit holders travel south to Leland Beach, and those few that do travel north from Dike Bridge, do not often make the ‘long slow trek’ further north to the [Cape Pogue] Lighthouse,” Judge Turano-Flores wrote in her 19-page decision.
The court held a hearing last week to talk about the schedule of the case as it heads to trial. The trial is set for March 15 through 19 in Boston.
At the Sept. 22 hearing, the Trustees attorney said the 1988 easement remains a question for trial. The Trustees are also arguing that because the nonprofit used the trails for decades, it should be allowed to do so under a prescriptive easement.