Great Cove Boat v. Bureau of Pub. Lands

The Bureau of Public Lands (the Bureau) appeals from a summary judgment entered in the Superior Court (York County, Fritzsche, J.) granting its motion for a summary judgment in a quiet title action brought by the Great Cove Boat Club (Great Cove).1 The Bureau contends that the Superior Court erred in finding that the statutorily created constructive easement on submerged lands has not been extinguished by Great Cove's predecessor-in-interest's entry into a thirty-year lease with the Bureau for the same lands. On cross-appeal from the denial of its motion for a summary judgment Great Cove contends that while the Superior Court correctly found that the easement continued to exist, it erroneously held that the interest in the easement had not been transferred to Great Cove. We modify the judgment and affirm. This case arises from a dispute over the rental payments owed by Great Cove for the use of submerged land owned by the State and managed by the Bureau. In 1947 Harris Spinney conveyed the parcel of land now owned by Great Cove to Gerald and Frances Berounsky. From approximately 1955 until April 1987 the Berounsky family operated Jerry's Marina, consisting of moorings and docks, in the Piscataqua River adjacent to the family's upland property. While the Berounskys still owned the docks and the upland property, the Legislature enacted a bill creating the Bureau of Public Lands. P.L. 1975 c. 339 codified at 12 M.R.S.A. § 551-560 (1994).