THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180356
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
In 1897, Jessie B. Etheridge deeded 10 acres of oceanfront property on a remote stretch of Hatteras Island to federal officials so they could build a lifesaving station there.
The U.S. Coast Guard abandoned that property 91 years later.
In 1992, federal officials gave that land - and the station - to Dare County.
But Etheridge's heirs said that since the government no longer was using the property for its intended purpose, the station and its land should revert to them.
Tuesday night, attorneys for Dare County and Etheridge's heirs argued ownership rights in Civil Superior Court in Manteo.
The case, which was continued until next week, hinges on whether the federal government received a lifetime right to use the land when officials paid Etheridge $200 for the property; or whether, when the Coast Guard stopped using it as a lifesaving station, the property should have been returned to Etheridge's heirs.
The deed Etheridge signed said the land was to be used ``to establish the life-saving station . . . for life-saving or life-boat stations, houses of refuge, and sites for pier-head Beacons.''
About 17 heirs scattered across the country initiated the lawsuit. At least 10 of those heirs have sold their potential shares in the property to Wanchese resident Philip Quidley. Quidley formed a group called Station Associates Inc., which is claiming ownership of the former Coast Guard land on the south side of Oregon Inlet.
On Tuesday, Quidley said he owns about 80 percent of the shares in the station and its land. If Station Associates wins the lawsuit - which it initiated - and gains clear title to the property, Quidley said he plans to put the land on the market. ``I'm just gonna sell it,'' he said.
Factors complicating the care are:
Much of the northern end of Hatteras Island was absorbed into the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge when that preserve was established in 1938. Dare County officials said that action strengthened the government's claim to the 10-acre tract. But an attorney for the heirs said the lifesaving station was expressly exempted in that take-over.
In 1959, more Hatteras Island land was turned over to the federal government when the Cape Hatteras National Seashore was created. Dare County's lawyer said that transaction included the lifesaving station. The heirs' attorney said it did not.
Furthermore, the heirs' lawyer said, Dare County officials waited three years after the federal government gave the county the land to file a title on the property south of Oregon Inlet and claim the 11,361-square-foot station and its land.
``That 1992 deed from the federal government to the county is void because it was not recorded for two years after its delivery,'' Raleigh lawyer John ``Nick'' Fountain said, arguing for the heirs. ``In North Carolina, there are no exemptions to that two-year rule. So Dare County has no title to this property.''
Raleigh attorney Mark Davis, who is representing Dare County in the case, disagreed. Even if Dare County doesn't own the property, he said, it belongs to the federal government - not Etheridge's heirs. ``Nothing in the original 1897 deed says that the government has to give that land back to the original owner if federal officials stop using it as a lifesaving station,'' said Davis. ``The mere statement of purpose for which the property is to be used is not a mandatory reversion.
``Is this a chicken and egg situation?'' Judge James E. Ragan III asked the attorneys after about 90 minutes of oral arguments. ``Do I answer whether the deed is void? Or do I answer whether there was a reversion clause in the original deed?
Dare County Attorney Al Cole asked the judge for more time to address the question of why the county's claim to the property was not recorded in court within two years after it received the rights to that land. Ragan gave attorneys for both sides another week to file additional briefs. He said he will decide the matter out of court after he receives all the information. ILLUSTRATION: VP map
by CNB