NAHANT – In what Board of Selectmen Chairman Rich Lombard called “a huge victory for the town,” an appellate court upheld the land court decision that would not grant Nahant property owner John Ryder the right to build a home at 64 Spring Road.In the latest in the multi-year dispute, the appellate court decided May 30 to support the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Land Court?s decision from October 2011 that the town had taken the appropriate steps back in 1898 to take a large section of the property to extend High Street, and therefore Ryder had no claim to that section of the property.?It was a long time coming, but we won it,” said Town Counsel Charles Riley, who represented the town in the dispute.Ryder?s attorney Samuel Vitali said the problem lay in that there weren?t enough documents saved from 115 years ago to show what had happened. “There?s no one that is 120 years old to testify from actual knowledge as to what did and didn?t happen,” said Vitali. “We are left to rely on extraneous facts that don?t all come to the same conclusion.”Vitali said Ryder would have to continue to prove that High Street does not go through his barn, as some historical accounts suggest. “The question is somehow it had affected his title ? and that?s what he was trying to address,” said Vitali. “He?s seeking to protect and preserve his rights, that?s all.”Vitali said Ryder was still a hero to the town for the upkeep on the historic Tudor-owned stone barn on site, and he would continue to maintain it.Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].