Rebecca Abbott waited Sept. 16 while her small excavator was loaded onto the back of a flatbed truck to be removed from the land she and her husband Derek had owned for more than seven years. They had hoped to build a horse farm and equestrian teaching center on the land in Boothbay, which abuts the Boothbay Harbor Country Club.

But now, due to a settlement reached late last month with Paul Coulombe’s business interest PGC2, LLC which owns the country club, the Abbotts will be leaving the 11 acres. Those will go to PGC2, according to the Aug. 31 settlement; the Abbotts agreed to leave the land for an undisclosed amount of money as of Sept. 17. Both Abbott and attorney Sumner Lipman of Lipman and Katz, P.A. indicated that the agreement was fair, and would allow the Abbotts to begin again.

“My clients aren’t litigious,” Lipman said. “They’re happy they don’t have to put up with further abuse from Coulombe.” Lipman said there have been difficulties since Coulombe bought the property in 2013. “What he wants, he gets,” Lipman said. “But in this case, the Abbotts are getting something, too. It’s a win-win.”

Lipman said this is his last case. He is retiring following the disposition of the Abbotts’ case. “I told them I would not abandon them,” he said. “But I’ve been meaning to retire for some time.”

Abbott looked around at the property she was leaving behind. “We really loved this land,” she said. “And in the beginning, we wanted to work with Paul. He offered to help us buy land somewhere else, but it had to be in the commercial district and have a certain amount of acreage, and we just couldn’t find anything. And this property was ideal, because it was so close to the YMCA.” The plan had been to offer riding classes to local children, and a property not far from the Y and the schools was best.

Abbott said she will be going into a partnership with Amy Reny at Burke’s Island Farm in Boothbay. Abbott said in addition to teaching riding, she hopes to offer therapeutic classes.  She expects to begin classes in the spring.

“We’ll be putting in new fences around new pastures this fall and winter,” she said. “The settlement will allow us to do that. It’s a very fair settlement.”

The newspaper also sought comment from David Soley of Bernstein Shur, attorney for PGC2. Soley forwarded the Consent Final Judgment from the Business and Consumer Court in Portland, but provided no comment on it. The document did not state the amount of money in the settlement.

After initial publication of this story on Saturday, the newspaper was able to contact Coulombe, who provided this comment via email:

“The Abbotts with Sumner Lipman as their attorney had no intention of building a horse farm. They decided to intimidate me with threats of damage by their horses and four wheelers to the golf course. They actually had a horse walk and run over tee boxes on the 14th hole. They extorted me for money so that I would rid myself from their threats and lawsuits which were frivolous at best. They were a nuisance to me and they knew it. Now they can go wherever they want with the money they extorted from me. It is a very sad commentary about our legal system.”