A judge’s ruling this week sunk the Town of Windermere’s long-held claim to ownership of five historic boathouses on the north side of Lake Butler, perhaps ending a costly, taxpayer-funded property-rights dispute that dates back more than four decades.

The decision by Circuit Judge John E. Jordan declared the private users of the boathouses near Palmer Park to be their rightful owners, noting they had for years paid Windermere rent “based upon the parties’ mutual mistake of fact that the Town had the right to charge rent” for the wooden structures.

The town sued in 2022 to wrest possession of the boathouses from the renter/owners and evict them.

“This was essentially government trying to take away private property rights,” said Daniel W. Langley, an attorney with Fishback Dominick and c

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