A jury in Baker County Circuit Court has ordered a Baker County couple to pay a total of $250,000 to four plaintiffs after a week-long trial in a 2022 civil lawsuit related to a dispute over the ownership of properties and access along a road in the Pine Creek area northwest of Baker City.

David McCarty and his partner, Joelleen Linstrom, are the defendants in the suit filed in July 2022 by James and Sharen Sanders, and Thomas and Betty Ann Lager.

The trial started June 24 and continued through June 28.

The jury reached its verdict June 28.

The Sanderses and the Lagers own separate cabins on property that borders a parcel that McCarty bought in 2020 in the Pine Creek Canyon, on the east side of the Elkhorn Mountains northwest of Baker City.

The Sanderses and Lagers contend in the lawsuit that McCarty and Linstrom infringed on their ability to enjoy their properties by installing a locked gate on the Pine Creek Road, setting up cameras “to monitor the attempted use of Pine Creek Road,” and “attempted privatization of Pine Creek Road.”

The couples, who claim in the lawsuit that the defendants’ actions constituted a private “nuisance,” were each seeking monetary damages of $250,000, a total of $500,000.

According to the verdict form, at least nine of the 12 jurors had to agree on the question of whether the plaintiffs proved beyond a preponderance of the evidence that McCarty and Linstrom were responsible for creating a nuisance for which the plaintiffs should be compensated.

(The evidence standard for civil cases is a preponderance of the evidence, meaning the claim is more likely to be true than not true. This standard is lower than in criminal cases, where the standard is beyond a reasonable doubt.)

At least nine jurors found that McCarty and Linstrom were liable for causing the nuisance.

In his instructions to the jury, Judge Matt Shirtcliff included this definition of private nuisance: “substantial and unreasonable interference with the use and enjoyment of another’s interest in land or an objectionable condition that creates substantial or an unreasonable condition that interfered with the use and enjoyment of private land.”

Jurors awarded the Lagers $75,000 in damages for their nuisance claim — $50,000 in economic damages and $25,000 in noneconomic damages.

Juors awarded James and Sharen Sanders $50,000 in noneconomic damages on the nuisance claim.

At least nine jurors also agreed that McCarty and Linstrom were responsible for trespassing on the Sanderses’ property, including their cabin. The jury awarded the Sanderses $125,000 in damages on the trespass claim — $100,000 in noneconomic damages and $25,000 in economic damages.

Jurors ruled against the plaintiffs on another claim, that McCarty was liable for “intentional infliction of emotional distress” against Thomas and Betty Lager.

Jurors also found that the plaintiffs did not prove any of their claims against another defendant, McCarty’s company Columbia Basin Helicopter Inc. McCarty’s company was involved in logging on his property, work which prompted some of the plaintiffs’ claims in the lawsuit.

Jurors determined that a state law related to forest practices makes McCarty’s company immune from the liability claim because the helicopters were involved in a permitted logging operation.

Betty Lager said on July 1 that she and her husband are “very pleased with the jury for their service. We accept the verdict and we are very happy with the verdict.”

Neither the Sanderses, nor Linstrom and McCarty, could be reached for comment.

The plaintiffs are represented by Anne Cohen.

Linstrom and McCarty are represented by Melanie Rose and Jasmine Eberhard.