Buffalo spine surgeon sues his mother over Fort Erie cottage property dispute

The three-bedroom bungalow along the sandy northern shoreline of Lake Erie has been in the Hamill family for 52 years. Melvin and Phyllis Hamill bought it for $13,500 in 1971, fixed it up and spent summers there with their four children, who fished, waterskied and sailed.

“All my kids grew up there. They loved it. It was wonderful,” said Phyllis Hamill.

But Dr. Christopher Hamill, an orthopedic spine surgeon, is suing his 91-year-old mother and his sister in State Supreme Court over the property, now estimated to be worth nearly $1.4 million.

Christopher Hamill, 61, alleges that his sister, Tracey Diehl, convinced his mother to cut his family out of her will. He sued both of them in 2022, claiming he had a verbal agreement in 2009 with his mother to pay for upkeep of the cottage if she passed her 50% stake in the property equally onto her children. He said in court papers he has paid “no less than $37,000” for expenses related to the beach house since 2009.

In an interview with The News, he said he sued only as a last resort to hold his mother to her promise or to be repaid for his expenses.

“Unfortunately, it’s turned into a family disaster. It’s pitted my sister and mother against my brothers and me. It’s a terrible situation, and I’m saddened by the whole thing,” he said.

Phyllis Hamill and Tracey Diehl, 65, who lives in Manchester, Vt., deny that there was any deal between mother and son or that the daughter influenced her mother’s decision-making.

“I make my own decisions. I have trouble with my legs, but my brain is good,” Phyllis Hamill said.

She said she needs to sell the cottage to pay for the assisted-living facility where she’s been residing since a fall last year took away her ability to walk.

“I don’t…