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Laura Viera Labbe suing Nantucket County over ownership of 112 Pleasant St.
"We need to clear the record, but the county has fought us tooth and nail and it's unfortunate that we have to resort to a lawsuit instead of [the county] admitting we own it," said Donald C. Lynde, Esq., of Marstons Mills, Labbe's attorney. On Oct. 6, Labbe, the daughter of the late Leroy Viera of Nantucket and trustee of the Pleasant Street Nominee Trust, filed her complaint in Barnstable Superior Court alleging that the county took the property from what is listed as "owners unknown" in 1956 without informing her father until June 16, 2005 about the taking of what she argues is his land. Viera also charges that the county did not make any attempt to repay her father 50- plus years' worth of property taxes he paid to the town on the .57-of-an-acre lot that he purchased in 1946. Also in her complaint, she questioned the logic of this continued taking effort in the face of a half a century of property taxes accepted by the town and the town's issuance of Planning Board approvals on Oct. 15, 1993, Sept. 8, 1994 and in 2007 for work done on the property. "It's the craziest thing I've seen and even more unusual is that Nantucket the town and county say they're the same people, so the Board of Selectmen put their hat on and accept property taxes [on the land] and then they put their county hats and say they own the property and what are we [the county] going to do with it," said Lynde. "You just can't take someone's property without notifying them and without paying them." Town manager Libby Gibson would not comment on 112 Pleasant St., and referred questions to town counsel Paul DeRensis who could not be reached as of press time. As of Monday, the county had not filed a response to Labbe's complaint. The county has 20 days to do so from Labbe's filing date of Oct. 6. Lynde said that the primary reason for the lawsuit is to clear up title ownership of this property so Labbe and her family can lease the building. The Labbe's 20-year lease of the building to the U.S. Postal Service ended in July 2007, shortly after the new post office opened at 140 and 144 Pleasant St. Having attempted to lease the building to Old South Diner owner Gary Roy, who tried unsuccessfully to obtain special permits from the Planning Board to open a country market selling fresh baked foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner, ultimately pulling his application in face of stiff neighborhood opposition and strict Planning Board parameters, Labbe also complains in her suit that the county prevented her and her family from income totaling $51,600 annually. "Plaintiff invested significant funds into the renovation and repair of the building in 2007 and 2008 based on the building permit, but the town of Nantucket Planning Board refused to allow the use of the property to the plaintiff's great damage," said Labbe in her Oct. 6 complaint. "Plaintiff was to receive $4,300.00 per month for a potential lease period of 10 years. On information and belief, the plaintiff says that either the town or the county interfered with the contractual relationship between the trust and the tenant to deny the approval of the contract, to the trust's great, and continuing, damage of $4,300.00 per month." Lynde is asking the court to rule that his client is the owner of the property at 112 Pleasant St. and for the county to give up its claim on 112 Pleasant St. and is requesting a jury trial, which he concedes could be sometime in March 2011. "My client is in a precarious position because she cannot sell it, she cannot re-mortgage it and the Planning Board denied what was a very good tenant," said Lynde. I |
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