For seven years, a Western Massachusetts hilltown couple watched as a neighbor chipped away at their property line. Trees were cut down, land crossed without permission and boundaries ignored.
The husband and wife from Huntington said they felt powerless and finally sued their neighbor in 2021, calling it their last resort after attempts to discuss the issues were met with vulgarities and law enforcement would not enforce “No Trespass” signs on their property.
As the drama unfolded this month at trial in Hampshire County Superior Court, neither side could afford lawyers, and both sides stepped in front of a jury representing themselves, known as pro se.
The decision by both sides to represent themselves is part of a growing trend across the country: more people are choosing to go to civil court without attorneys.
About three-quarters of all lawsuits now involve at least one side without a lawyer, according to the National Center for State Courts.
With all the complexities of a trial, even professional attorneys must think quickly on their feet. This trial also had its own unexpected twists.
When an expert witness ran late, the husband, David Baillargeon, quickly changed plans. In an unanticipated move, he called his wife to the stand.
“Lori, do you remember our first encounter [with the neighbor]?” he asked his wife in front of the jury.
“I’m Mrs. Baillargeon to you right now, sir,” she quipped. David Baillargeon sounded amused and responded, “Thank you for correcting me.”
After a two-day trial that included two expert witnesses for the plaintiffs, a jury found in favor of the Baillargeons, and the judge awarded triple damages, bringing their total reward to $360,451.
Even so, David Baillargeon hardly cracked a smile and gave a thumbs up after the jury verdict came back nearly two weeks ago.
But the problem — beginning with a not-so-friendly conversation the first time the couple met the neighbor — might never have snowballed into an all-consuming lawsuit, they claim, if Massachusetts had stronger laws in place. It’s a gap they hope will be closed for others in the future.
A bumpy start
As the jury deliberated two weeks ago, the Baillargeons waited apprehensively outside the courtroom at a small table. They were reluctant to discuss the case at first, but recalled with heavy sighs all the hours, days, months and years devoted to resolving the intrusions onto their property.
“There are no winners or losers in civil cases,” Lori Baillargeon, the wife, said. “It’s difficult for everyone involved.”
David Baillargeon, 74, is a former deacon at Holy Family Parish and he runs several businesses in Huntington with Lori Baillargeon, 70, including an antiques business called “Swinging Bridge Auction.”
The couple began the litigation in 2021, having hired an attorney, but the legal expenses quickly added up, and they decided to take on the case by themselves last fall.
“The case becomes a part of your life,” David Baillargeon said. The couple has lived at their home since 1979. One of their businesses involves an aquaculture farm in a small pond on their property. They sell 9-inch bait fish at $9 a piece.
In a civil complaint filed against their Thomas Road neighbor, Matthew Lennon, 42, the Baillargeons stated that he encroached on their property and willfully destroyed their trees. He stored unwanted trailers on their property, started unwanted bonfires on their property and harassed the couple, they wrote.
At trial, when David Baillargeon questioned his wife during direct examination, she recounted the first time they met Lennon on an icy, cold February day in 2018. They arrived home to discover a man parked on their property in his truck, who they later learned was Lennon, and they walked up to introduce themselves.
When they got to the window, Lennon snapped at them, “Get the something off of my truck,” she said, avoiding the swear while testifying. David Baillargeon attempted to shake his hand and told him, “Let’s start over. I’m trying to give you some information about this property.”
“I don’t want to talk to you, I know who you are. Get the eff away,” Lennon told the couple, according to Lori Baillargeon.
During the trial, Lennon confirmed he purchased the property for $15,500 in February 2018. The property was abandoned for six years before he purchased it, but he argued during the trial that he simply wished to live in the home with his family.
“I want to be left alone. I bought a house 1.5 miles in the middle of the woods off a dirt road, in the forest, to live with me and my son so I could raise him,” Lennon said. “I have never antagonized these people. They want you to believe a whole lot of curveballs that were thrown at me that were not true. I didn’t do any of this.”
Lennon’s property is roughly 9,789 square feet and is essentially an island surrounded by the couple’s 86 acres of forest in Huntington. It can only be accessed by bumpy, rocky dirt roads owned by the Baillargeons and it’s more than a mile drive from the town road.
The lawsuit accused Lennon of trying to steal land by distorting boundary lines and taking possession of the Baillargeons’ land after purchasing the property. The lawsuit laid out several instances, including trees cut down, removing trespass signs and throwing them in their pond and driving an ATV on their property.
Lennon could not be reached for comment.
The Baillargeons contended in the lawsuit that the property Lennon purchased was never intended to be a residence, but simply a “hunter’s camp.”
After several confrontations — police were called more than once — the couple decided they needed the court involved to enforce their no trespass signs.
‘Forced into this’
Huntington is roughly a 30-minute drive west of Northampton and a town with a population of a little more than 2,000.
The Westfield River runs through the Baillargeon property and canoes paddle down during the annual race.
Their vast property is mostly woods and their house sits secluded amid rocky hills. The dirt roads on their property can be traced back to the 1800s and the town voted to discontinue service several years ago.
“We’ve always liked small-town living,” Lori Baillargeon said.
At trial, David Baillargeon explained to jurors the difficult position they were in when it came to bringing the matter to court:
“We didn’t want a lawsuit. We were forced into it. This is the last place we wanted to be. Police would show up, he would argue it’s his land, not his, and they’d say, well, it’s a civil matter, you got to bring it to court. For that reason, you are all here.”
A week after the jury verdict, the couple was still waiting on a judge to rule on an injunction to enforce its no-trespass order and remove encroachments on its property. Lennon also has 30 days to appeal the outcome of the trial, according to the Baillargeons.
The couple said they would like to see changes to the enforcement of no trespass laws in Massachusetts. The maximum penalty for trespassing on private property is $100 and/or 30 days of imprisonment, according to state law.
“This does not protect property owners,” David Baillargeon said. “In other states … there’d be big trouble.”
The couple cited Maine as having stricter no-trespass laws. In that state, a civil violation can result in a fine between $100 and $500. Three or more violations can result in up to six months of incarceration and a $1,000 fine, according to Maine’s laws.
They hope to live semi-retired in the near future, and they are in the process of moving their antiques business into a new space.
“Hopefully, we won’t encounter any more issues,” Lori Baillargeon said.
