State can't be sued for selling off midcoast mans property and house, court rules

BDN file
This waterfront property in Owls Head, that was valued by the town at nearly $500,000, was sold by the state for $205,000 while its owner was in a psychiatric hospital.

OWLS HEAD, Maine — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday ruled that the state could not be held liable for its actions in 2013 when it took over a man’s property in Owls Head, sold it at half its market value and euthanized his cat.

The court ruled in favor of the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday, the latest in a years-long legal battle waged by William Dean’s family, who sued the state after it took the Owls Head man’s property while he was being treated at a state-run psychiatric hospital.

The state, which acted as public conservator over Dean’s property for the six months after he was admitted, sold Dean’s property for 40 percent of its assessed worth, damaged many of his personal belongings by allowing his water pipes to burst and mold to spread throughout the house, sold his Cadillac and euthanized his cat, Caterpillar, his family said. The state claimed it sold Dean’s property to pay back outstanding taxes.

Pam Vose, Dean’s cousin, and Claire Perry, his sister, filed two lawsuits in the state’s Business and Consumer Court in Portland in 2015. The state claimed that it had immunity from the negligent claims asserted by Dean’s family.

Read more: http://bangordailynews.com/2017/03/03/news/midcoast/state-cant-be-sued-for-selling-off-midcoast-mans-property-and-house-court-rules/