In a small town in the southwestern corner of the state, the ownership rights to a historic church property are in dispute.
The Pownal Center Community Church sued the town on April 4 to clarify property rights to their place of worship and associated land. Attorney Evan Chadwick, who represents the church, wrote in the civil lawsuit filed in Bennington Superior Court, asking for any uncertainties of legal ownership be resolved in favor of the church.
The town’s lawyer Robert Fisher responded with a motion on May 7 to dismiss the lawsuit, stating that the church failed to offer a sufficient argument for its ownership of the property.
According to the lawsuit, Pownal was first chartered in 1760 by the Province of New Hampshire Gov. Benning Wentworth, and a piece of land — a glebe — was set aside for the Church of England.
The Pownal Center Community Church, also known as Union Church, was established around January 1790. No town records for the property title exist from that time, the suit states, and the selectboard affirmed the building would be used for worship in 1850.
The town ceased using the church’s basement for meetings by 1991, and erected Pownal’s current municipal office in 2021, according to the lawsuit.
Chadwick argued that the church has held legal title over the property since 1790, had never relinquished claim to it and has maintained insurance on the property since 1980.
He said the church should be granted property rights under Vermont’s adverse possession law, which allows someone to claim ownership after occupying the property for at least 15 years, even without purchasing it.
Chadwick also asserted that the church qualifies for a prescriptive easement, citing the congregation’s continuous use of the building for over 15 years as grounds for legal access and use.
Chadwick wrote the church congregation and predecessors have occupied the property since 1790 for religious activities, congregational gatherings, maintenance and other uses that lessen the town’s ownership interests.
According to the suit, the trustees for the church and the Pownal community obtained a deed to a portion of the property called the “carriage shed” on the southwest corner of the premises in 1905. The town refused to sign a quitclaim deed for the carriage shed property in 1976, agreeing with the church at the time that they “held no title interest” to the property, according to the lawsuit.
Chadwick declined to comment on the lawsuit this week, and the church could not be reached for comment.
Fisher wrote in the May 7 motion that the church has not offered evidence that they hold a perpetual lease, title or ownership interest in the property “by deed or right,” and the church’s claim to the property through adverse possession and prescriptive easement is “clearly barred” under the timeline of Vermont statute on recovery of lands.
Fisher also asserted that “assuming the property was granted as a glebe land,” the property title would belong to the town.
Pownal town officials declined to comment on the matter, but the selectboard members acknowledged the lawsuit at a special meeting on April 24.
“We would like to be clear that the town has never had any intention of dispossessing this church,” Board Member Jeannie Alexander said.
Correction: The story has been updated to reflect the deed ownership for the carriage shed portion of the property under dispute.
