New York Appellate Court overturns BT Holdings judgment

An appeals court panel reversed a $2.4 million court judgment against the Village of Chester, dismissing claims village officials did a U-turn on their agreement allowing BT Holdings to build multi-family housing.

In its press release following the decision, the Village of Chester said: “This is a complete victory for our Village, residents and taxpayers. Both of BT Holding’s lawsuits against the Village have now been dismissed.”

Chester Village Mayor Tom Bell added: “The village will not be bullied by big developers who use litigation to force development instead of using the land use processes available to all. I commend my colleagues on the Village Board for their steadfast refusal to deviate from what was right.”

Litigation Counsel for the Village of Chester was Donald J. Feerick Jr., Mary E. Brady Marzolla and Patrick A. Knowles of Feerick Nugent MacCartney in South Nyack.

“We are pleased that the Appellate Division thoroughly reviewed the issues and dismissed a case that should have been thrown out long ago,” Marzolla said.

The same lawyers also represent the town in its suit against The Greens.

David McCartney, also with the firm, serves on the village’s Zoning Board of appeals.

Kelly A. Pressler and Kara J. Cavallo, lawyers with Jacobowitz & Gubits, LLP, in Walden, represented BT Holdings.

Nussbaum, the developer of BT Holdings, said he is still seeking justice. He responded to an email with the following comment:

“We are disappointed in the Appellate Court’s decision to overturn a unanimous jury verdict, whose members had found the Village Board acted in bad faith by deliberately breaching its contracts with us - a dishonorable betrayal that after so many years working together left us literally no other choice than to seek justice via the courts.

“Contrary to Mayor Bell’s assertion,” he added, “we are not “big developers,’ as he knows; rather, our family has owned and paid taxes on our Chester property for over 35 years and sought like any other landowner to develop our property in accordance with Chester’s Comprehensive Plan.

“Only after the Village had annexed our property into its borders, at its explicit request, did the Board do a 180 and suddenly seek to submarine the very development it had used to justify the annexation in the first place,” Nussbaum said. “This is nothing more than an egregious and shameful example of government overreach. We will be seeking leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals where we are hopeful that justice will be served.”