Cemetery access dispute rages on
Toolbox
By Josh O'Gorman STAFF WRITER - Published: September 26, 2009
WOODSTOCK — A Hartland man has filed a lawsuit seeking clarification on who may access a private cemetery on his property and what sort of activity — including new burials — may be performed there.
J. Michel Guite has filed suit in Windsor County Superior Court against Jerome King of Hanover, N.H., and his daughter Nathalia King, of Portland, Ore.
Guite is the owner of South Meadow Farm in Hartland, which contains a 27-foot by 41-foot private burial ground known as the Aldrich Cemetery.
In 2008, Guite successfully petitioned Windsor County Probate Court to relocate three graves within the cemetery. During a pair of public hearings, Jerome King objected to Guite's petition. Shortly before he sold the farm in 1983, King buried his parents' ashes in the Aldrich Cemetery.
When King sold the farm, he included language in the deed calling for the preservation of the cemetery and the right to reasonable access, but Guite's lawsuit notes that the original deed from 1853 excludes the cemetery from the sale.
Guite's lawsuit asks if King's easement is valid, what rights he and subsequent generations of the King family have to access the cemetery and what right he has to ask King to relocate his parents' ashes.
"It's hard for my wife and family to know how many people will be buried there. People simply don't want a hearse rolling through their property," Guite said. "In 1860, the world was a different place. In 2010, people can sue you if they slip and fall on your property and you didn't offer adequate protections."
In response, King filed his own motion seeking to forbid Guite from disturbing the Aldrich Cemetery and allow any member of the King family to visit the cemetery without notifying Guite.
"His (Guite's) hostility to the idea that anyone — particularly Respondent (King) and family — should have access by right suggests that visitors must come on bended knee to the new lord of the manner," King wrote in a counterclaim.
King said neither he nor any other member of the King family wishes to be buried in the cemetery, he just wants to ensure he has access to it and wants to be sure there is a cemetery to access in the first place.
"The important thing for me is to get the cemetery back where it belongs," said King, who last visited the cemetery in July to plant a geranium at his parents' marker.
King's daughter said she has pleaded her family's case to Guite to no avail.
"I tried to persuade him (Guite) there are other issues besides property rights. None of the prior owners had any problem respecting the easement as required by the deed," Nathalia King said. "It's deeply upsetting and I think it verges on harassment for my family, especially for my parents who are in their 80s."
Sept. 3, the parties appeared in court and Judge Harold E. Eaton, Jr. ordered Guite and King to enter into arbitration. King told the court he would prefer to not mediate.
"I don't see much point in mediation. They want to move the cemetery and I want it back where it belongs," King said, noting the next step is a two-day trial scheduled for Jan. 15. "I'm prepared to go to trial. I've gone this far I might as well take it to the next step."
josh.ogorman@rutlandherald.com
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