An Overton County dispute over the proper use of East Fork Lane will head to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
Chancellor Ronald Thurman dismissed part of the Overton County lawsuit Friday demanding that nearly 2.5 miles of the lane be declared a public road.
Overton County Executive Ben Danner said the Court of Appeals will decide whether the case goes to trial to determine if East Fork Lane is a public road.
“Chancellor Thurman is sending it to the Court of Appeals to get a decision as to whether the County has standing or not to file a lawsuit and ask him to declare that road public or private,” Danner said. “My understanding is, as soon as we get that written, we send it in, it’ll go to the Court of Appeals and they’re going to make a decision. Chancellor Thurman will come back to us and tell us whether the County has standing to ask for that. If we do have standing, we’ll go to trial then.”
The dispute began after property owners along East Fork Lane Road closed access to a portion of the roadway that leads to a popular swimming spot known as the ‘blue hole.’
Thurman said all individuals who own land adjacent to the road must be present in the lawsuit. Some 40 people are required for the lawsuit to move forward.
Danner said the County filed the initial lawsuit out of concern over a potential domino effect with the other landowners along the property.
“If you’ve got 40-some other people living along this road, if one landowner can put up a gate and block his section of the road, what will happen when all them other 40-some people start blocking their sections of the road,” Danner said, “or people in other parts of the county start blocking off their road. I don’t know where it stops if we say that these people can come in and block off a road that’s been open for 70 years or more, then just decide that they don’t want it opened.”
Attorney Will Ridley – who represents landowners in the case – filed a motion prior to Friday’s hearing to dismiss the case, saying the lawsuit was unconstitutional. Thurman denied the motion on the grounds that the county has the right to sue for the road to be unblocked.
Previous cases cited in the motion use public and county road interchangeably. Thurman said the definition of a public and county road ultimately affects whether or not the county has standing in the lawsuit.
Chancellor Ronald Thurman denied Overton’s request for a restraining order in October, allowing the property owner to continue blocking access to the road.
A date has not yet been announced for the Court of Appeals to hear the case.
