I am not an attorney, and cannot offer legal advice. My opinion is based on my reading of the Private Ways Statute, 23 M. R. S. §§3101 - 3104, and my experience researching and writing by-laws for our statutory road association. I recommend you consult with a qualified attorney before acting on my advice.

Do the owners of the omitted lot use your road? Is their parcel benefited by the road ?

If either answer is affirmative the following should apply. 

Section 3101, subsection 2. Call of Meeting, states:

"Copies of the warrant or similar written notice must be mailed by means of the United States Postal Service to the owners of all the parcels benefited by the private road, private way or bridge at the addresses set forth in the municipal tax records at least 30 days before the date of the meeting."

The "owners of all the parcels benefited" were not notified thus failing to fulfill a key requirement of the Statute. I believe you are correct in your fear that your current road association does not qualify as statutory, i. e., was not formed according to the Statute. 

Since many statutory components already appear to be in place, it may be a simple matter, in preparation for your next meeting, to carefully review §3101, have a notary issue a warrant, include the omitted owner, meet and vote your new statutory association as required.

I recommend a visit to our Resources Page to review Item 3, STATUTORY ROAD ASSN - "Warrant for First Meeting" by Roberta Manter.

According to the majority opinion in Sunshine v. Brett, the parcel belonging to the omitted owner in your case certainly appears to be "benefited" by your road.  On page 6, Discussion, B. Meaning of "Benefit" in the Private Ways Act, for instance, ¶14, "A parcel benefits from a private road if the parcel includes a easement creating a right to use the road." and, further, ¶15, "Construing the language in terms of the entire statutory scheme, we conclude that any parcel...that enjoys a right to use the private road is a benefited parcel." The conclusion discounts owners' "intensity of use of the way".

The majority also found, Page 10, ¶17, “The unambiguous notice requirements of 23 M. R. S. §3101 (2) that identify who must receive notice …establish the very essence of notice necessary to form a road association.” and then, ¶18, “Bearing these principles in mind, the record will only support a finding that the association failed to comply with the statutory requirement that it send notice of the initial meeting to all owners of parcels benefited by the private road. As a result, the association was not eligible to make assessments for the years in question.”  ---in your case, from inception to date (my thought).

This finding may have direct bearing on your current situation. It appears to me that your association has never achieved statutory status. Since your association may be ineligible to make assessments, it certainly may not enforce collection of assessments according to §3104, Penalties and Process. You now have a well-meaning, but probably informal, road association. Because of your honest intent and the absence of apparent animosity, I doubt you will have owners demanding “refunds”.

I suggest you begin at the beginning with a request to Notary from owners of three properties to issue a warrant to form a statutory road association. Our road association was informal before it became statutory in 2016. At our organizational meeting we voted to dissolve all prior road associations and attempted to obtain the signatures of all owners of properties involved. We got all but one. The dissolution of prior associations will prevent any owner from seeking redress for past actions of your association. Again, please run all the above by a qualified attorney before acting. 

Good point - I believe you are correct that the existing road association would qualify as an informal road association, and as such, anything it has already collected would be legal - you just would not be able to use the statutes to enforce collection.  So your best bet probably is to dissolve that association and start a new one, following the statute to the letter.