TUNBRIDGE — A judge ruled this week that Tunbridge officials have the right to maintain and repair public trails on private property.

In a winding historical analysis dating back to 1797, Windsor County Superior Court Judge Dickson Corbett outlined legislation and case law that proves Vermont towns’ authority to create and maintain trails. He also shut down the argument that any state law takes away towns’ rights to maintain public trails.

“The whole point of a public easement is to enable the public to travel over the easement without having to ‘bargain with (the landowner), as best (they) can’ for permission,” Corbett wrote, citing 1840s case law. “…It would defeat the purpose of a public easement to locate the ‘right to control’ the easement not with the town but rather with the underlying landowner.”

A state law passed in June says that municipalities “shall have the authority to maintain trails but shall not be responsible for any maintenance, including culverts and bridges.” The law applies to “legal trails,” or trails that were converted from former public roads. There are more than 500 miles of legal trails across the state and four trails of this kind in Tunbridge.

While this new law supports the Selectboard’s position, it does not go into effect until next April so Corbett’s Tuesday decision will be effective until then.

Corbett’s decision comes after years of debate in town and in the Vermont courts. It marks the fourth ruling issued in the years-long dispute between the town and owner of the 325-acre Dodge Farm that is crossed by two legal trails.

Since 2020, property owners John Echeverria, a professor of property law at Vermont Law and Graduate School, and Carin Pratt have been embroiled in debate with the town over whether bicyclists should be allowed to use the 0.72-mile Orchard Trail that crosses their property.

The issue first made its way into the court system in 2022.

The couple argued in court that the Tunbridge Selectboard lacks the authority to maintain or designate the appropriate use of legal trails in town based on state and town law, including by clearing several fallen trees that have since crossed the path. The couple has owned the property since 2015 but live in Strafford.

Before making its way to Corbett, the case was dismissed twice in Vermont Superior Court on the grounds that there was no specific dispute for the court to intervene in. But in 2022, Tunbridge established a new trails policy to explicitly dictate its right to repair and maintain trails, which cleared the way for the property owners to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The Vermont Supreme Court reversed the previous decisions and returned the case to Superior Court to be looked at again.

Since Echeverria and Pratt bought the Dodge Farm on Strafford Road they have maintained the trails, Corbett wrote in his decision.

But after the town began discussing allowing bikes on the trails in 2020, the property owners stopped keeping up the trails “which resulted in overgrowth and uncleared blowdown. The lack of maintenance has had the effect of preventing at least some users (including bicyclists) from using the trails,” according to Corbett. The owners have also said they won’t maintain the trails “unless and until the town adopts trail-use policies that meet with their approval.”

Members of the Tunbridge Selectboard were reserved but positive about the victory in a recording of a Tuesday night meeting,

Since 2022 the town has spent nearly $60,000 to litigate the case, Selectboard Chairman Gary Mullen said in a Thursday interview. The Selectboard does not expect to get any of this money back through the legal process.

Corbett’s decision is effective immediately, but Mullen said the town plans to hold off on removing the trees on the trail “for now” to not “poke the bear,” though they have planned maintenance work for the other trails in town.

While he said the selectboard is “very excited” about the ruling, they are still “apprehensive of what’s to come.”

Echeverria has 28 days to file for reconsideration, followed by 30 days to appeal the decision to a higher court, Assistant Town Clerk Mariah Cilley told the board, citing an email from the town’s attorney. Echeverria plans a “prompt appeal to the Supreme Court,” he said in a Wednesday email.

“We don’t look forward to that, but we think in the end we’ll prevail again,” Mullen said.

Clare Shanahan can be reached at cshanahan@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.