C. Arthur Yergey

Founder

Chester Arthur Yergey — known professionally as C. Arthur Yergey — was born in Cressona, Pennsylvania, and raised in nearby Reading, where he attended public schools through high school. He went on to Pennsylvania State College and then to Dickinson Law School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he earned his Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) in 1925.

That same year he came to Orlando, Florida, joining the law office of W. B. Crawford to begin his active practice. He continued with Mr. Crawford until November 21, 1927, when he opened his own independent office — the practice that has, in unbroken succession, become Yergey & Yergey, P.A. The firm carries an "Est. 1928" designation today.

In 1926, he married Germaine I. Graff of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, who had attended Seton Hall and graduated from Dickinson Law School with her own Bachelor of Laws. She practiced law alongside her husband until 1930. Their only child, David Arthur Yergey, was born in Orlando on March 16, 1930.

World War II Service

On June 18, 1942, C. Arthur Yergey was commissioned a Captain in the United States Army. He left for overseas service in October of that year and participated in the North African invasion.

Family tradition recalls the landing at Port Lyautey in French Morocco. The lead landing craft of his wave was destroyed in the surf, killing the senior officers in it. As the senior surviving American officer on the beach — at that point still a Captain not yet of field grade — C. Arthur accepted the local garrison's surrender. The dress saber handed to him by the surrendering officer hung above the fireplace in his Orlando law office for decades.

He was assigned in turn to the British Eighth Army and then the British First Army, and took part in the invasion of Sicily. Following Sicily, he was transferred to the judge advocate's office, becoming Staff Judge Advocate with the Twelfth Air Force in Bomber Command. Across thirty-five months of overseas service he served in seven major campaigns. He returned to the United States in September 1945 and resumed his law practice in Orlando.

He was awarded the Bronze Star for distinguished service in the war, along with Presidential Citations. He held the rank of Major in the Reserve Corps and served as a past President of the Officers' Reserve Association. He was a member of both the American Legion and the Amvets.

While he was overseas, his wife Germaine — the first female lawyer in Central Florida — served as attorney for the U.S. Army Air Corps at the Orlando Air Force Base, and their son D. Arthur, then twelve and thirteen, ran the family's Fern Grove citrus operation in his father's absence.

Lake Maitland and the Public Trust Doctrine

Among C. Arthur Yergey's most consequential legal matters was the Lake Maitland case — a quiet but significant exercise of Florida's public trust doctrine that preserved a Central Florida lake as a public resource.

A local dentist had acquired title to what he claimed was approximately thirty-five acres of submerged lake bottom in Lake Maitland — including what was then called Picnic Island — and proposed to dredge and fill the area between his upland holdings and the island. His legal theory was that the submerged lands were swamp lands susceptible to private conveyance.

C. Arthur Yergey, representing riparian landowners on the opposite shore, took the matter directly to the Florida Attorney General and the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund and argued that Lake Maitland was a navigable waterway. Under Florida law and the public trust doctrine, navigability meant the State — not a private titleholder — owned the lake bottom, and the dentist's title to it was void.

After several years of litigation, the court ultimately ruled that Lake Maitland is a navigable waterway. The lake bottom remained public; the proposed dredge-and-fill plan was foreclosed. Every person who has since boated, kayaked, or fished Lake Maitland has done so on water the firm helped keep open.

Civic Life

Beyond his practice, C. Arthur Yergey was active across Orlando's civic and religious life for decades. He served as Vice President of the Orlando Junior Chamber of Commerce, President of the Reserve Officers Association, President of the Central Florida Civic Music Association, Chairman of Beautification for the Orlando Area Chamber of Commerce, and as a member of Draft Board #103.

He sang in the church choir from boyhood, and at his Episcopal parish served as Parish Council President, Vice President of the Men's Club, Junior and Senior Warden, and a Member of the Standing Committee for the Diocese of Central Florida. He was a member of the Orlando Country Club, the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, the University Club, and the Citrus Club.