MIDCOAST VILLAGER • October 28, 2026
Oral arguments are set to begin Thursday, Nov. 5, in the damages appeal by Jeffrey Mabee, Judith Grace and the Friends of Harriet L. Hartley Conservation Area in their long-running slander of title lawsuit against Nordic Aquafarms. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has scheduled oral arguments to begin in the Cumberland County Courthouse. Mabee, Grace and the Friends are appealing a lower court ruling that rejected their claim for damages, reimbursement of litigation expenses and attorney fees. In its effort to develop a $500 million land-based salmon farm in Belfast, Nordic claimed an ownership interest in a strip of intertidal mudflats the Norwegian company needed to lay its industrial intake and effluent pipes to Penobscot Bay. Nordic, which left town in January 2025, used release deeds it secured from third parties to support its ownership claims.