PROVINCETOWN — The owner of Sal’s Place may not have to pay $78,499 in legal fees plus fines for putting restaurant tables on the beach behind her neighbor’s house.

In a major reversal of his previous rulings in the case, Land Court Judge Michael Vhay on Nov. 12 ordered all of the parties — restaurant owner Siobhan Carew, neighbor Gregory Connors, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the Provincetown Zoning Board of Appeals — to negotiate an agreement among themselves.

Meanwhile, he has placed a stay on all related proceedings. That includes the collection of fees and fines the judge had previously imposed on Carew for violating his injunction forbidding her from serving patrons on the beach behind Connors’s home.

If the parties cannot reach a compromise by Dec. 17, he said, the case will need to be relitigated.

Vhay wrote in his latest decision that his previous injunction “rested on an incorrect premise.” That premise goes to the heart of why this case has aroused so much public interest.

The case began with two neighbors who do not get along and have been battling in court for six years. Last summer, things got complicated.

Because of the pandemic, the town issued a permit for Carew to seat people at tables in the intertidal zone behind Connors’s home; this was allowed under the town’s emergency order to help business owners who were losing out because of limits on indoor seating.

Later, in a conflict over who sets the rules for the area below the mean high tide line, Carew argued that the intertidal zone west of Howland Street is owned by the Commonwealth, making this part of Provincetown unusual. In the rest of the state, waterfront property owners own the land all the way to the mean low tide line.

But Vhay never made that distinction in his various rulings last summer. He imposed fines and ordered that Connors’s attorney fees be covered by Carew. Every time the legal team from Sal’s argued that the judge was missing the distinction about who owns the intertidal area, the judge refused to acknowledge it.

But that changed on Sept. 10, when an attorney working pro bono on behalf of a children’s sailing camp near the disputed area submitted an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief, stating that the intertidal zone is owned by the state and not Connors.

Provincetown’s town counsel filed a similar brief. Then, on Oct. 22, the state attorney general followed suit, asserting that the state owns the intertidal zone and asking Vhay to correct his order.

Vhay said he would need to reconsider his earlier injunctions against Carew, because “now there is a big cloud hanging over” the case.

The judge also congratulated Karl Buch, the attorney for West End Racing Children’s Community Sailing, for bringing the matter to his attention.

“You should say, ‘mission accomplished,’ ” Vhay told Buch. “I appreciate your filing of this brief and you should be pleased that the proper parties are involved.”

Buch told Vhay that the sailing club, located at 94 Commercial St., is very close to Sal’s at 99 Commercial St. and Connors’s house at 101 Commercial St.

He said West End Racing became concerned that the decision would affect the club. If a precedent were set finding that intertidal lands are held by private property owners down to mean low water, Buch said, the moorings that the sailing club uses could be lost, because they are in the intertidal lands behind neighbors’ properties.

The town’s attorney, Amy Kwesell of KP Law, urged Vhay to allow the town to participate in mediation because the town has been drawn into this and other legal battles between Carew and Connors for years. Following the ZBA’s original permit allowing the restaurant to use the intertidal zone behind Connors’s home, the select board stood by Sal’s this summer by refusing to amend that permit, even after Kwesell advised the board to honor Vhay’s injunction.

“When things happen at 101 Commercial St. or 99 Commercial St., the Provincetown police get called, the conservation agent gets called, the building commissioner gets called, the assistant town manager gets called, and, last but not least, the town manager gets called,” Kwesell said. “No one would like to see a settlement more than the town of Provincetown.”

Attorney Jamy Madeja, representing Sal’s, said in court that the restaurant’s owner never argued that she wants a restaurant on the beach long-term. The only relevant matter is whether she could serve patrons on the beach under the town’s and Gov. Baker’s allowances to use public land for business seating during the pandemic.

Attorneys on all sides declined the Independent’s requests for comment. They all did agree to try mediation, although another of Carew’s attorneys, Anthony Panebianco, cautioned that there is significant animosity built up between the parties.

Some Provincetown meetings are in-person only, some are remote only, and some are a hybrid where you can choose to participate in person or through a remote link. Go to provincetown-ma.gov, click on the meeting you want to watch, and follow the instructions on the agenda.

Monday, August 23

• Community Housing Council, Town Hall, 4 p.m.
• Select Board, Town Hall, 6 p.m.

Tuesday, August 24

• Licensing Board, Town Hall, 5:15 p.m.

Wednesday, August 25

• Local Comprehensive Plan Committee, Remote, 1 p.m.
• Public Pier Corporation, 5 p.m.

Thursday, August 26

• Planning Board, Town Hall, 6 p.m.

Conversation Starters

Aug. 25 Deadline for Sal’s

Judge Michael Vhay of Mass. Land Court has given the owners of Sal’s Place restaurant until Aug. 25 to show cause for why he should not extend the fines he has already levied against them for various violations related to their use of a neighbor’s property. The fines fall into three categories: two are for seating diners on the beach behind their neighbor’s home, and one is for the use of a parking easement belonging to the neighbor, Gregory Connors.

Because of indoor dining restrictions during the pandemic, Sal’s was given permission by the select board in 2020 to seat diners on the beach, and the Carew family — the owners of the restaurant — began using the area behind Connors’s house as well. The Carews have also used the parking easement between the properties.

In May 2021, Judge Vhay issued an injunction against the Carews’ use of both the parking easement and the beach area behind Connors’s house, but they have continued operating in both areas.

Following a trial on Aug. 11, Judge Vhay laid out fines totalling $7,200 to be paid by Siobhan Carew for violations between July 23 to July 28.

Vhay has also held Siobhan Carew in contempt of court. The judge ordered that Connors’s attorney’s fees be paid by Carew.

The restaurant owners are now in danger of being fined an additional $2,000 a day for continuing to violate the injunction between July 29 and Aug. 11. —Sophie Hills

PROVINCETOWN — Seating on the beach is still an option for diners at Sal’s Place in the West End, despite the fact that a Mass. Land Court judge has ordered the restaurant’s owners to pay fines of $1,000 a day for violating his earlier instruction to remove the tables behind their neighbor’s house at 101 Commercial St.

In the latest battle in a six-year war between Sal’s owners, Michela Carew-Murphy and her mother, Siobhan Carew, and their neighbor Greg Connors, the judge has found the Carews in contempt of court. The $1,000-a-day fines began on July 23.

As of Monday, July 26, Sal’s was still seating people in the disputed spot.

Land Court Judge Michael Vhay issued an injunction in May, advising the Carews that they had to stop putting restaurant tables in the intertidal zone behind Connors’s home. The Carews have argued that the intertidal zone, between mean high and low water, is not Connors’s property.

Judge Vhay rejected that argument. Earlier this month, he wrote in a clarification of his original injunction that Siobhan Carew “suggests that for some shoreline properties in Provincetown, title to the beach ends at the mean high-water line. Ms. Carew has provided no facts on summary judgment from which this Court could conclude that 101 Commercial Street is among those properties.”

Both the Carews and Connors have declined to speak to the press and did not return calls seeking comment.

The conflict between the neighbors began soon after Carew purchased the restaurant in 2016.

Provincetown officials got involved in 2020, when the town issued a permit to allow Sal’s to place tables on the beach during the Covid-19 pandemic, when indoor seating was limited.

The select board has since declined to rescind or amend the permit. This was a problem for Connors, who has argued that the seating the town allowed is illegal.

The town’s attorney, Amy Kwesell of KP Law, did not provide an opinion on the use of intertidal zones for restaurant seating. But when the judge ordered the restaurateurs to remove the seats, she advised the select board to amend the permit so that seating would conform to the judge’s order.

“The ramifications are,” said Kwesell on July 12, “if we allow by license for seats to be in front of 101 Commercial, there is a very good chance that action will be taken against the town. I am not going to predict what kind of action.”

The select board, however, unanimously went against her advice.

Town Manager Alex Morse said last week that the town is not being fined along with Sal’s.

The select board voted to extend the seating permit until Nov. 1, or until the lawsuit with Connors is resolved.

Select board member John Golden said the judge and Kwesell did not provide clarity on the allowed uses of intertidal zones. Connors, Golden added, “is not a sympathetic character… He rents out his house. He isn’t even here.”

Select board member Louise Venden has a photo of herself and friends at one of Sal’s tables behind 101 Commercial St. at the top of her Facebook page. She said the photo is not an indication she is “taking sides.” The photo was taken on a beautiful night in September, before the injunction, Venden said.

The Carews try to give her free food every time she goes to Sal’s, but she declines because it is improper for a select board member to accept gifts, Venden added.

When asked why she voted against the advice of town counsel, Venden said, “KP Law is lame, OK?”