For seven years, a Western Massachusetts hilltown couple watched as a neighbor chipped away at their property line. Bushes have been minimize down, land crossed with out permission and limits ignored.
The husband and spouse from Huntington stated they felt powerless and eventually sued their neighbor in 2021, calling it their final resort after makes an attempt to debate the problems have been met with vulgarities and regulation enforcement wouldn’t implement “No Trespass” indicators on their property.
Because the drama unfolded this month at trial in Hampshire County Superior Court docket, neither facet might afford attorneys, and either side stepped in entrance of a jury representing themselves, often called professional se.
The choice by either side to symbolize themselves is a part of a rising development throughout the nation: extra individuals are selecting to go to civil court docket with out attorneys.
About three-quarters of all lawsuits now contain not less than one facet with no lawyer, in response to the Nationwide Middle for State Courts.
With all of the complexities of a trial, even skilled attorneys should assume rapidly on their ft. This trial additionally had its personal sudden twists.
When an professional witness ran late, the husband, David Baillargeon, rapidly modified plans. In an unanticipated transfer, he referred to as his spouse to the stand.
“Lori, do you bear in mind our first encounter [with the neighbor]?” he requested his spouse in entrance of the jury.
“I’m Mrs. Baillargeon to you proper now, sir,” she quipped. David Baillargeon sounded amused and responded, “Thanks for correcting me.”
After a two-day trial that included two professional witnesses for the plaintiffs, a jury present in favor of the Baillargeons, and the choose awarded triple damages, bringing their whole reward to $360,451.
Even so, David Baillargeon hardly cracked a smile and gave a thumbs up after the jury verdict got here again practically two weeks in the past.
However the issue — starting with a not-so-friendly dialog the primary time the couple met the neighbor — may by no means have snowballed into an all-consuming lawsuit, they declare, if Massachusetts had stronger legal guidelines in place. It’s a niche they hope will likely be closed for others sooner or later.
A bumpy begin
Because the jury deliberated two weeks in the past, the Baillargeons waited apprehensively outdoors the courtroom at a small desk. They have been reluctant to debate the case at first, however recalled with heavy sighs all of the hours, days, months and years dedicated to resolving the intrusions onto their property.
“There are not any winners or losers in civil circumstances,” Lori Baillargeon, the spouse, stated. “It’s troublesome for everybody concerned.”
David Baillargeon, 74, is a former deacon at Holy Household Parish and he runs a number of companies in Huntington with Lori Baillargeon, 70, together with an antiques enterprise referred to as “Swinging Bridge Public sale.”
The couple started the litigation in 2021, having employed an legal professional, however the authorized bills rapidly added up, they usually determined to tackle the case by themselves final fall.
“The case turns into part of your life,” David Baillargeon stated. The couple has lived at their house since 1979. Considered one of their companies entails an aquaculture farm in a small pond on their property. They promote 9-inch bait fish at $9 a chunk.
In a civil criticism filed towards their Thomas Highway neighbor, Matthew Lennon, 42, the Baillargeons acknowledged that he encroached on their property and willfully destroyed their bushes. He saved undesirable trailers on their property, began undesirable bonfires on their property and harassed the couple, they wrote.
At trial, when David Baillargeon questioned his spouse throughout direct examination, she recounted the primary time they met Lennon on an icy, chilly February day in 2018. They arrived house to find a person parked on their property in his truck, who they later discovered was Lennon, they usually walked as much as introduce themselves.
Once they obtained to the window, Lennon snapped at them, “Get the one thing off of my truck,” she stated, avoiding the swear whereas testifying. David Baillargeon tried to shake his hand and instructed him, “Let’s begin over. I’m attempting to provide you some details about this property.”
“I don’t wish to discuss to you, I do know who you might be. Get the eff away,” Lennon instructed the couple, in response to Lori Baillargeon.
In the course of the trial, Lennon confirmed he bought the property for $15,500 in February 2018. The property was deserted for six years earlier than he bought it, however he argued throughout the trial that he merely wished to reside within the house along with his household.
“I wish to be left alone. I purchased a home 1.5 miles in the midst of the woods off a dust street, within the forest, to reside with me and my son so I might increase him,” Lennon stated. “I’ve by no means antagonized these individuals. They need you to imagine an entire lot of curveballs that have been thrown at me that weren’t true. I didn’t do any of this.”
Lennon’s property is roughly 9,789 sq. ft and is actually an island surrounded by the couple’s 86 acres of forest in Huntington. It might probably solely be accessed by bumpy, rocky grime roads owned by the Baillargeons and it’s greater than a mile drive from the city street.
The lawsuit accused Lennon of attempting to steal land by distorting boundary strains and taking possession of the Baillargeons’ land after buying the property. The lawsuit laid out a number of cases, together with bushes minimize down, eradicating trespass indicators and throwing them of their pond and driving an ATV on their property.
Lennon couldn’t be reached for remark.
The Baillargeons contended within the lawsuit that the property Lennon bought was by no means meant to be a residence, however merely a “hunter’s camp.”
After a number of confrontations — police have been referred to as greater than as soon as — the couple determined they wanted the court docket concerned to implement their no trespass indicators.
‘Pressured into this’
Huntington is roughly a 30-minute drive west of Northampton and a city with a inhabitants of a little bit greater than 2,000.
The Westfield River runs by way of the Baillargeon property and canoes paddle down during the annual race.
Their huge property is generally woods and their home sits secluded amid rocky hills. The grime roads on their property could be traced again to the 1800s and the city voted to discontinue service a number of years in the past.
“We’ve at all times appreciated small-town residing,” Lori Baillargeon stated.
At trial, David Baillargeon defined to jurors the troublesome place they have been in when it got here to bringing the matter to court docket:
“We didn’t desire a lawsuit. We have been compelled into it. That is the final place we wished to be. Police would present up, he would argue it’s his land, not his, they usually’d say, nicely, it’s a civil matter, you bought to deliver it to court docket. For that motive, you might be all right here.”
Per week after the jury verdict, the couple was nonetheless ready on a choose to rule on an injunction to implement its no-trespass order and take away encroachments on its property. Lennon additionally has 30 days to enchantment the end result of the trial, in response to the Baillargeons.
The couple stated they want to see modifications to the enforcement of no trespass legal guidelines in Massachusetts. The utmost penalty for trespassing on personal property is $100 and/or 30 days of imprisonment, in response to state law.
“This doesn’t defend property house owners,” David Baillargeon stated. “In different states … there’d be massive hassle.”
The couple cited Maine as having stricter no-trespass legal guidelines. In that state, a civil violation can lead to a nice between $100 and $500. Three or extra violations can lead to as much as six months of incarceration and a $1,000 nice, in response to Maine’s laws.
They hope to reside semi-retired within the close to future, and they’re within the technique of transferring their antiques enterprise into a brand new area.
“Hopefully, we received’t encounter any extra points,” Lori Baillargeon stated.
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