DATE: Saturday, November 1, 1997            TAG: 9711010729

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CURRITUCK                         LENGTH:   64 lines

FAMILY LOSES FIGHT TO KEEP DUCK BLIND JUDGE DECIDES THAT CURRITUCK COUNTY GAME COMMISSION RULES WERE FAIR.

A local family lost one of its prized duck-hunting blinds after a judge decided the county game commission's policies, including a 40-year-old prohibition against inheriting blinds, did not violate the Constitution.

The commission's ``policies and procedures are not arbitrary or oppressive, or attended by abuses of authority, and therefore are constitutional,'' Judge Edgar Barnes of Currituck County District Civil Court, said Friday afternoon.

The decision means Robert Lewis and his mother, Edith Lupton Lewis, will lose one of two blinds - areas in which hunters hide - that have been in the family since the 1950s.

An appeal is likely, Edith Lewis said. ``They're making up rules as they go.''

``We felt we had every right to increase our odds to get this blind,'' said Paige Lewis, Robert's wife.

Robert Lewis' father, Warren, died in January, and the blind became available for an annual August drawing. Robert Lewis submitted his name 11 times, paying the $35 fee for each entry. Calling his entries unfair to others, the Game Commission voted to allow only one entry per person per blind minutes before the drawing.

``We feel we've followed laws, policies and rules that tell us what to do,'' said Billy Rose, chairman of the Currituck Game Board, which oversees the regulation of 810 blinds in Currituck Sound. ``You can't will your blind. The land and water belong to the state.''

In the suit, the Lewises challenged the constitutionality of the board and its policies.

Good hunting blinds are at a premium in the area around Currituck Sound, long acclaimed as a ``sportsman's paradise.'' Blinds must be at least 500 yards apart and no space remains in the Sound for another one.

For years, an unwritten law allowed owners to pass on a blind by not registering it and telling a family member or friend to register instead. If the family member was the only one to register, then he automatically got the blind.

Registration fees are $35 for North Carolina residents and $250 for out-of-state residents.

While Lewis loses the right to use the site, Rose said, he can claim any lumber or hardware used to build the blind.

``None of us on the game board woke up that day and said, `We don't want to give these people their blind,' '' Rose said. ``The board members are sincere and trying hard as they can.''

William Newbern III of Currituck County won the drawing for the Lewis blind, which sits in an area of the Sound called Little Narrows.

The Lewises also charged that James Markert, a board member, registered for three blinds he knew would be available and uncontested.

Barnes criticized Markert's actions, but said they were legal.

``The conduct of a sitting board member in registering blinds known to be or likely to be available without the advertisement of said facts to the public does very little to insure and promote public trust in fairness and equality of the application and awarding process,'' Barnes said. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

DREW C. WILSON/File photo

Hunters wait for results of a winter duck blind drawing at Bodie

Island. A prohibition on inheriting blinds isn't unconstitutional, a

judge said.

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