James McBurney's Nov. 5 letter "Facts Missing in Sound Story" is incomplete and mistaken.

First, there was indeed a challenge to Beachcroft's title in Verderame v. Saggese, which was decided in Beachcroft's favor. However, a notice of intent to appeal has been filed in that case. The decision is an interlocutory Superior Court decision not yet final and appealable. There will be an appeal once final judgment is rendered in that case, which remains pending on the Complex Litigation Docket in Hartford.

The statement that the residents of the lots on Crescent Bluff Avenue that do not front on Long Island Sound "do not have and have never had legal title to the land in front of their houses" is mistaken. In a separate lawsuit there is a claim by several of the lot owners for legal title based on adverse possession. Their adverse possession claim is based on an open, continuous, and

adverse use of the property in front of their houses to the curbline since the 1930s.

There are six lawsuits raising issues concerning access to Long Island Sound and the use of various portions of common property that are now all assigned before Judge Shapiro in the Complex Litigation Court in Hartford.

This whole controversy started with trespass actions initiated by the McBurneys several years ago. That case made its way to the Supreme Court and is reported under the name of McBurney v. Cirillo, 276 Conn. 782. The decision was published on Jan. 24, 2006. It reviewed the findings of a five-week trial conducted before Judge Richard Arnold in the Superior Court at New Haven in 2002. In that case, the lot owners, including the Baldwin and Cirillo families, were given a right-of-way to Long Island Sound that the McBurneys opposed.

William F. Gallagher

New Haven

William F. Gallagher is legal counsel for nine Crescent Bluff Avenue lot owners.