Somewhere out along the 14th tee of the Boothbay Harbor Country Club, a couple is attempting to live their lifelong dream of owning a horse farm on the Boothbay Peninsula.

While horse farms and country clubs manage to coexist in many places — indeed, many country clubs have bridle paths and equestrian facilities of their own — this particular marriage is not made in heaven.

Derek and Rebecca Abbott own a horse boarding and lesson facility known as Kick Start Stables, named for the way the original plan was funded. They also lease space to the Boothbay Equestrian Center. According to court documents filed by the couple’s attorney Sumner Lipman, the facility lies on about 11 acres between the country club and the Pine Tree Land Preserve, managed by the Boothbay Region Land Trust. The Abbotts bought the land in 2009 and always planned to turn it into an equestrian center at some point, Lipman said.

Slowly, the Abbotts obtained the funding and the necessary permits to start their dream business. But in the intervening years between the time they bought the land and the time they were ready to open, the country club was undergoing renovation to make its own dream a reality.

The Boothbay Region Country Club had opened in 1921, as a small, nine-hole golf course. It expanded to 18 holes in 1999. In 2013, it underwent a complete renovation when area businessman Paul Coulombe purchased the property and began reworking the course and building a new clubhouse. The clubhouse opened in mid-May.

But the course changes did not take into account the rights-of-way that the Abbotts have long held, Lipman said. He filed a suit at the end of May that included a request for injunctive relief and punitive damages. The Abbotts’ property deed, an exhibit in the suit, includes rights-of-way along the golf course, known as the Tote Road and Gravel Road easements.

Lipman also claimed in the lawsuit that during the golf course renovations, stones on the Abbott property that were going to be used for the equestrian facility had been taken by the golf course, and debris from renovating golf cart roads, including tar and other building materials, were dumped on the Abbotts' land.

Lipman tells the court that what was more troubling to the Abbotts was that the rights-of-way along the easements near the 14th tee were being closed to the Abbotts with the tee box itself, as well as building debris, the expansion of a maintenance building, and vehicles parked on the easements. Lipman stated in the court documents that this would affect the lease agreement the Abbotts had signed with the Equestrian Center, and severely affect the horse farm as a business.

Responding in Superior Court, Coulombe's attorney David Soley of Bernstein Shur denied every allegation the Abbotts had made.

According to Lipman, a fence went up on country club property which he believed met the definition of a “spite fence” — that is, a fence erected solely to annoy or harass a neighbor. The definition under Maine statute is: “Any fence or other structure in the nature of a fence, unnecessarily exceeding 6 feet in height, maliciously kept and maintained for the purpose of annoying the owners or occupants of adjoining property, shall be deemed a private nuisance.”

Both parties agree the fence is eight feet tall. According to emails Lipman provided to the Boothbay Register, Lipman contacted Soley and informed him that unless it was removed, the Abbotts would bring their horses to the area under dispute, which they did when the fence was not withdrawn, on Friday, July 22.

Lipman later wrote to Soley, telling him that if the fence was not removed, the Abbotts would respond with “four wheelers, dirt bikes” as well as horses on the easement, which would have done additional damage to the course around the 14th tee.

Shortly after that, Soley, on behalf of PGC2 LLC, the corporation that owns the golf course, applied for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Abbotts. According to evidence Soley gave the court, the horses allegedly did some damage around the tee.

Soley also provided several affidavits about the damage done at the 14th tee, and a land surveyor familiar with the rights-of-way, Terry Leighton, said that the fence was completely outside the 50-foot easement. In the court documents, Soley said it was a privacy fence and not an uncommon feature of golf courses. Soley also said the fence was designed to protect the horses and to shield the Abbotts’ “unsightly” property from view.

While the proposed TRO was not signed, the judge did require that all parties remain on their own land until the trial date, set for Aug. 23 in Augusta.

There was no decision on the fence itself. 

A mediation meeting is planned for Aug. 17. Lipman said he did not know what to expect from that meeting.

However, he filed court documents on Tuesday, Aug. 2, asking for a temporary restraining order against the defendants, Coulombe and PGC2 LLC. In the documents, he refers to the Leighton survey, which was first done in 1996, and revised several times, the latest revision in 2016, which, Lipman asserts, clearly shows the rights-of-way and demonstrates clearly that the golf course is blocking at least one of the rights-of-way completely. Lipman further asserts the 2016 version shows that the golf course is causing encroachments that prevent the Abbotts from accessing their property.

The Boothbay Register contacted Soley for comment regarding the civil suit. He responded with court documents from the case.