Eric Gura’s bakery and coffee shop in Woods Hole, a favorite haunt for Islanders on their way to and from the mainland, is named Pie in the Sky. But a superior court jury found last week that his claim to use a tiny adjacent property he doesn’t own is rooted in solid legal reality.

The years-long civil dispute between the coffee shop owner and the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank was resolved in the Edgartown courthouse last Thursday when the jury found that Pie in the Sky had established the right to use a small strip of land it does not own between the shop and the savings bank branch.

The dispute dates to 2009 when the Island-based bank bought the branch office at 2 Water Street in Woods Hole, formerly owned by the Bank of America and next to Pie in the Sky.

A disagreement soon cropped up between Pie in the Sky and its new neighbor over whether the bakery could continue to cross a tiny sliver (.05 acres) of bank-owned property to receive deliveries and take out trash.

In court, the legal issue was whether the bakery had established what is known as prescriptive easement through continuous use of the land for more than 20 years. Under Massachusetts law, prescriptive easement can be established when use of the land is “non-permissive, actual, open, and notorious,” explained the Hon. Cornelius J. Moriarty, who is presiding over the spring sitting of Dukes County Superior Court.

The trial began Wednesday after it took some time to seat a jury; some prospective jurors were excused for having a business relationship with the savings bank, the largest bank on the Island.

“For 30 years, the owner of this neighborhood baker has crossed over the bank’s property,” Michael Ford, an attorney from East Boston representing Pie in the Sky, told the jury in opening statements. “There’s a new bank in town, and they want to end this.”

But Michael Goldsmith, an Edgartown attorney representing the savings bank, said the bank was willing to continue allowing access over its property and simply wanted to clarify the legal issue and protect its investment in the two parcels it had purchased for $2.2 million. “He does not own the parking lot,” Mr. Goldsmith said. “That’s not their property. They don’t have a deeded right, they don’t have a piece of paper that says they have a right to cross this property.”

Mr. Gura and former bakery owners took the stand during the two-day trial, which also attracted onlookers including bank employees.

Judge Moriarty must still decide the scope of the prescriptive easement and is expected to set parameters, including when Pie in the Sky can take deliveries and empty trash, and exactly where customers and staff have the right to cross the bank’s property.

Following the verdict, Mr. Gura said he was relieved and had worried about what would happen if it had gone the other way. “It would have destroyed the business, with no way for deliveries and trash,” he said.

Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank president Paul Falvey called it a fair outcome.

“We respect and appreciate what the jury did,” Mr. Falvey said. “One of the most important things from my perspective, we’ve worked with Pie in the Sky for years allowing deliveries and trash removal. They had our permission to do it. This really centered on his insistence that he had a legal right to do it.”