A property dispute that began a decade ago, resulting in a civil suit that’s been stewing in Mathews Circuit Court in one form or another for nearly seven years, was finally dismissed earlier this month at the request of both sides.
According to a letter in court records dated April 8, Mark and Candy Eubank of Doswell and Gwynn’s Island and three former Mathews County employees—county administrator Mindy Conner, planning and zoning director John Shaw, and wetlands administrator Sue Thomas—made a joint motion that the suit be dismissed with prejudice. A suit that’s dismissed with prejudice is permanently dismissed and can’t be brought back to court.
The dispute began in 2015 as a complaint by the Eubanks that people were congregating at Tin Can Alley, the beach adjacent to their vacation home on Gwynn’s Island. The Eubanks laid claim to the beach and blocked access, and the county asserted that the small area at the end of Old Ferry Road had a prescriptive easement for public access and...