Judge denies Sarvis motions
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
It only took Nantucket Superior Court Judge Isaac Borenstein a couple of days last week to decide to deny all the motions filed by developer Robert H. Sarvis in a civil suit against the town. Although the motions were denied, the suit is still pending but is not scheduled for pretrial hearings until September 2008.

Sarvis, a former island resident who built The Commons in the late 1980s, initiated the suit in February 2006 in objection to a costly late fee the town imposed after he began excavating a property one day prior to obtaining a building permit. He lost an appeal of the fee that he pro- posed to the selectmen, and about a week later he took his case to court.

According to a statement of undisputed facts filed in court by Sarvis in March 2006, he applied for a building permit for a residence at 21 Vesper Lane in October 2005, which was approved by Building Commissioner Bernie Bartlett the following month. On Jan. 8, 2006, Sarvis excavated the site and was then assessed a late filing fine of $6,078 on top of the $2,026 cost of the permit. He paid the $8,104 on Jan. 9 and received his permit.

According to the statement, Sarvis was never cited with a violation of the building code or issued a stop work order, and no actual construction began at the property until after he received the building permit.

When he lost his appeal to the selectmen, Sarvis took the matter to the state Building Code Appeals Board and won support that the fine was excessive. The $6,078 was returned to him, but Sarvis went ahead with his court complaint, naming Bartlett as well as Town Counsel Paul DeRensis and his law partner Daniel Deutsch as defendants and maintaining that he did not require a building permit for the excavation. His motions sought to compel the town to provide him with documentation of how the late fee came to be determined, along with conversations between Town Counsel and the selectmen. He argued that the attorneys used their positions to damage him and that he was intentionally inflicted with emotional stress. Last week, Judge Borenstein denied Sarvis's motions and released DeRensis and Deutsch from the suit.

Sarvis, who resides in North Swanzey, N.H. but is a licensed Massachusetts contractor, is no stranger to the court system. Along with a number of civil suits he has been involved in, in March 1995, Sarvis was convicted of five counts of bank fraud and sentenced to serve 46 months in Pennsylvania's Allenwood prison. He was also ordered to pay more than $12 million in restitution to five banks, including $2 million to Proctor Bank in Vermont. Two weeks after his Aug. 17, 1998 release from prison he applied to be an adjunct professor at Community College of Vermont.

In his resume, Sarvis claimed that from 1984 to 1998 he was president and board chairman of a Boston company. In a resume for a second position with the college he stated that he had been an adjunct instructor of business at two schools, but that he had not worked for four years and discouraged Community College of Vermont from contacting school management. In other submitted materials, Sarvis cited business law and business ethics as courses for which he had a high level of capability and interest.

Subsequently, Sarvis was placed under contract with Community College of Vermont. However, after his probation officer contacted the college about his criminal history Sarvis was fired because of the nature and gravity of his offenses and the potential harm to the college's reputation. Sarvis sued the school for breach of contract and wrongful

termination, but lost. I