A lawsuit regarding public access to a popular recreation area in Craig County came to an abrupt halt Monday afternoon amid questions about whether the owners of the land could prove their ownership.
The legal team for Briar Oak Properties LLC and Briar Oak Farms LLC, led by Roanoke-based lawyer Lenden Eakin, asked Craig County Circuit Judge Joel Branscom for the nonsuit, an agreement not to pursue a suit against the defendants — the commonwealth of Virginia and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission — that does not preclude them from refiling the same complaint in the future.
The issue stemmed, Eakin said, from the plaintiffs’ inability to establish a chain of title, or the full ownership history of one of the parcels in question dating back to its original 18th-century grant. A long-ago deed of transfer, he said, referred to another deed that his team had failed to put into evidence. It was unclear if the attorneys were in possession of the deed in question.
“We didn’t want to take a chance on losing with all the resources that have gone into this,” Eakin said outside the courthouse in New Castle on Monday afternoon.