Residents must pay McCain’s legal costs

A group of Hacketts Cove residents who had argued that they could access a local beach by a right-of-way across a property owned by Eleanor McCain now face the prospect of reimbursing her for legal costs.

In a Nova Scotia Supreme Court order dated Thursday, 14 residents of the community on St. Margarets Bay that is a 45-kilometre drive southwest of downtown Halifax and just north of Peggys Cove signed a permanent injunction barring them from entering “any part” of the McCain property or interfering in any manner with the applicant's use of the property.

The applicant is the daughter of the late Wallace McCain, the Florenceville, N.B., co-founder of McCain Foods Ltd., the world's largest manufacturer of frozen potato products.

Media reports about the dispute that went public in 2015 said that McCain, a professional singer, had accused residents who used a wooded path on her property to get to Barneys Beach of trespassing, vandalizing her property, leaving garbage behind and passing through at any time of the day or night.

The residents served legal notice to McCain a year ago that a historic rightof-way to the beach had existed for more than 150 years. The residents signed a declaration Thursday before Justice Ann Smith confirming that none of them has an easement or right-of-way over any part of McCain's property.

The residents had stopped using the path and recently dropped their civil action.

The court order signed Thursday awards legal costs to McCain to be paid by the 14 residents in an amount to be agreed upon by the parties. Failing agreement, the costs will be determined by the court.