PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 13, 2026
Maine’s highest court agreed Tuesday that a family has the right to access a neighbor’s beachfront property in a Phippsburg subdivision. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruling comes more than three years after Richard and Sheila Tappen sued their neighbors, Clark Hill and his family, for allegedly encroaching on property that the Tappens had bought from a neighbor in the Popham Beach Estates subdivision through a release deed. The Hills filed a counterclaim to the lawsuit, arguing that they and their guests enjoyed an “implied easement” because of how long their family had been using the neighborhood beach. A Business and Consumer Docket judge ruled in November 2024 that the Hill family could access the beach for recreational purposes.