Fishermen file class-action suit to keep access to Napeague Beach

East Hampton trustees and 12 fishermen have filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all 28,000 residents of the town seeking declaratory judgments to uphold their 140-year right to access a contested section of beach in Napeague for all types of fishing.

The suit, filed in state Supreme Court in Suffolk, names as defendants five property owners’ associations that initially brought a state lawsuit seeking to bar vehicles from the 4,000-foot stretch of oceanfront known as Napeague Beach. The fishermen are planning a Sunday news conference on the beach to announce the suit, said one of their lawyers, Daniel Rodgers of Southampton.

The class-action complaint notes that commercial and recreation fishermen and their families have accessed Napeague Beach via truck, cart and other "wheeled conveyances" for hundreds of years, to transport boats and fishing equipment to the water’s edge. Their right to use the beach is enshrined in an 1882 deed conveyed by the trustees to developer Arthur Benson, the suit says.

Plaintiffs include commercial fishermen Paul and Daniel Lester and James Bennett, whose families have fished the ocean waters of the East End for more than a hundred years. The property owners groups include the Seaview at Amagansett, Dunes at Napeague Property Owners and Whalers Lane Homeowners.

James Catterson, a lawyer for some of the homeowners, laughed when told of the lawsuit. "It’s funny stuff," he said. "The bottom line is the town lost and they’ve been trying to escape the effect of that loss ever since."

Stephen Angel, another lawyer for homeowners, said the latest suit "looks to me like a transparent attempt [by fishermen and the town] to get a new appeal. They want a do-over and I don’t think they’re going to get it."

Rodgers, the fishermen’s lawyer, responded, "We don’t need a do-over, we won," because the reservation continues to allow fishing and related activities. The suit, he added, is about "fishermen fighting for the right to do what they’ve done for over 300 years. We are going on the offensive and we’re going to take our beach back."

The property owners groups filed their first lawsuit seeking to block truck access in September 2009, requesting a court judgment that they owned the beach and that the reservation in the Benson deed had "terminated." They also sought an injunction preventing the town from issuing permits that would allow fishermen or others drive on that portion of the beach.

A state Appellate Court ultimately ruled that the homeowner plaintiffs owned the contested portion of the beach and restricted the town from issuing new permits for the beach. But it upheld the fishing reservation in the Benson deed. It found the reservation "is in the nature of an easement allowing the public to use the homeowners’ associations’ portion of the beach only for fishing and fishing related activities."

Last May, the groups were granted a temporary restraining order forcing the town to prohibit vehicles on the beach, prompting fishermen’s protests that led to arrests.

In filing their suit, the trustees and the fishermen, and any town residents who sign on to the suit, are asking the court to issue three declaratory judgments protecting and upholding their access to the beach for fishing and related activities, and declaring that the homeowner groups be barred from asserting control of the beach in "a manner that is adverse and hostile" to the fishermen and residents.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.