What would we do without reader correspondents?

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First, here’s exciting news forwarded by someone I assume wants to remain anonymous, so I won’t publicly give him the credit he’s due:

Ol’ Dependables is coming to town!

GREENWICH, Conn. (WTNH) – President Joe Biden is expected to hold a reception with local politicians and well-known industry leaders Monday evening.

The private reception is scheduled for Monday, June 3, at the home of the former CEO of HBO.

(That would be Richard Plepler’s digs at 25 Sherwood Avenue, just in case any Yale students on summer vacation want to stroll up from the Field Club and yell about Palestine, or sumptin’. )

The item below is also included in the news article — do you suppose it’s the same event?

Biden, Harris to launch Black voter outreach effort amid signs of diminished support

And then there’s this video sent along by reader “CT Mom” — it appears to be a brilliant reworking of a 1950s PSA brought up to date with people we can all recognize and appreciate. (Although I’m not pleased they include a picture of Sen. John Fetterman in the montage; lately, he’s been sounding remarkably lucid on quite a few important issues, and, while he still remains what I’d describe as a liberal, he seems to be of the Daniel Patrick Moynahan school of Democrats, and that’s fine with me — no panderer is he, so if he holds a position different from conservatives on a particular issue, so be it; it’s not because he’s doing so to appease the mob.)

Some of you spent the holiday weekend dozing in a hammock — Ellen Mosher was moving (a couple of) her listings.

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12 Dawn Harbor, Riverside, asking $10950 million, contract after 20 days.

no books, of course, but a big tv to comfort and reassure young buyers

And in Old Greenwich, her listing at 18 Shore Acre Drive, $2.950 million, is also under contract: 14 days.

By the way, check out the town’s 2023 appraisal figure for 12 Dawn Harbor, selling for upwards of $10.950, and then tell me we have a rational, competent tax appraisal system:

Another sale on Echo Lane, but one that might give other buyers on the street pause for thought.

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18 Echo Lane, the owners of which, like No. 7 Echo were represented by Steve Archino, has also sold, but at a much lower price: $1.950 million. Give Steve credit, he’s no Berkshire Hathaway agent hiding hidden water problems, and in fact was quite open about this one’s difficulties. Then again, they were hardly hidden, were they?

Remarks: Offered in as-is condition due to storm Ida damage, this 1958 colonial home presents a unique opportunity for the savvy buyer.

Not every house, surely, but some on Echo Lane have experienced difficulty with invading waters recently. Just two weeks ago, for instance, an application for a subdivision on neighboring Ridgeview Avenue was rejected by our P&Z because of concerns about flooding in the Ridgeview/Echo Lane neighborhood.

A Mr. Tim Busler [21 Echo Lane] said the subdivision would worsen the existing bottleneck of water at the bottom of the hill.

He noted there were already plans in the works to rebuild the North Street bridge because of increased drainage coming downhill.

“When this neighborhood was flooded, it was because of the drainage coming down Ridgeview,” Busler recalled. “And the grade on this property is severe…This is steeper than the grade of Ridgeview itself. It is coming right down there to create flooding which is what damaged many homes on Ridgebrook and Echo Lane, which are just 200 yards away and 50 feet beneath Mr. Staffieri’s house.”

And in April, 2023, Echo Lane residents expressed their concerns that a bridge replacement on North Street would exacerbate flooding on their own street.

Shocker: Riverside home sells for less than asking price (but don't panic yet)

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86 Winthrop Drive

86 Winthrop Drive, priced at $4.650 million, has sold for just $4.5. The buyers are from Brooklyn; maybe they know how to drive a hard bargain out there.

Now this is more like it

28 Verona Drive was listed at $5.250 million and has sold for $6.2 million. Phew! I was worried there that we were seeing a new trend in that Winthrop sale.

verona drive, riverside

Show trials and the collapse of American jurisprudence

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This is outrageous, but explicable on unanimity. The jury still has to unanimously convict Trump, but do not have to be unanimous on which crime Trump allegedly covered up with false ledger entries. The prosecution only discussed that in closing arguments and offered three theories -- one of which was a violation of federal campaign-finance law, which is outside the jurisdiction of the Manhattan DA and state courts. As long as jurors are convinced he tried to cover up one or more of the crimes, they don't have to be unanimous on which one it was.

Needless to say, this is absurdly unconstitutional. Defendants are entitled to know the clear charges against them, and prosecutors are required to prove each element of the case. In this trial, the only reason these are felonies is because Bragg insists that Trump violated other laws, but never even presented a case on any of the three theories. 

RELATED:

Rep. Stefanik slaps Judge Juan Merchan with misconduct complaint over ‘random’ assignment to Trump ‘hush money’ trial

“Acting Justice Merchan currently presides over the criminal case against President Trump brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg,” she said.

“Acting Justice Merchan also presided over the criminal trial against the Trump Organization and will be presiding over the criminal trial of Steve Bannon, a senior advisor in President Trump’s White House and a prominent advocate for President Trump,” Stefanik continued, noting that there were at least two dozen sitting justices eligible to oversee the cases, but Merchan — an acting justice — was selected for all three related to the presumptive 2024 GOP nominee for president and his allies. 

“If justices were indeed being randomly assigned in the Criminal Term, the probability of two specific criminal cases being assigned to the same justice is quite low, and the probability of three specific criminal cases being assigned to the same justice is infinitesimally small. And yet, we see Acting Justice Merchan on all three cases,” Stefanik argued.

I doubt Stefanik’s complaint will go anywhere — this is New York, after all — but it’s another illustration of our descent into a despotic banana republic. A descent cheered on by the left, unsurprisingly.

Not surprising

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7 Echo Lane as listed at $2.495 million in March, went to highest and best offer immediately, and sold today for $2,800,300. I remember the house in its 2005 and 2006 (updated) iterations and thought it was a good house back then, and Echo is a popular street that’s convenient to town. The sellers here completely redid the house and expended from around 2,000 to 3,500 square feet. The pond in the back, that is really just a wide spot in Horseneck Brook, might give a buyer pause because Horseneck does occasionally flood, but the listing includes a “LOMA” letter removing the residence itself from the FEMA flood zone, and the house has been there since 1959, so ….


Connecticut will now require all employers — even those with just one employee — to grant workers 40 hours of paid vacation

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I don't do fast food, so I was unaware of this. Wow.

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A dismal prediction about the fast food industry from the founder of Carl Jr’s

With franchise and restaurant owners confronting a delicate balancing act between higher menu prices and labor costs, one former industry leader is concerned more doors are preparing to close nationwide.

"There will be a lot of restaurants underperforming. Middle-performing restaurants are going to go away. Very good-performing restaurants will become midland or low-performing restaurants," former CKE Restaurants CEO – parent of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s – Andy Puzder said on "Varney & Co." Tuesday.

"As more restaurants close, there'll be more customers for fewer restaurants," he continued. "But people just can't afford these prices. And there's only so much you can do to reduce prices."

"I was talking to a fast food chain CEO about a week ago, and he was saying they're going to take all of their ordering at the drive-thru… [with] professional order takers in India or in the Philippines. It won't be anybody in the restaurant that takes your order," Puzder said. "They're doing anything they can to reduce costs so they don't have to raise prices. But there's so much pressure, particularly in California."

I’m more worried about the disappearance of cheap, abundant energy than I am about the demise of cholesterol pumping stations, but still ….

This will be interesting to watch — UPDATED

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37 Deepwoods Lane $2.805 million paid on $2.495 ask

Hmmm. Here’s a case where, despite the homebuyers’ hiring their own building inspector and architect to examine the house they were buying before closing, they still managed to persuade a judge to rule in their favor and find there was probable cause to believe that they’d been defrauded as to the condition of the house, and the defendant’s real property and bank accounts have been attached to the tune of $1.4 million. The case file can be found here.

SEE UPDATE, BELOW

The owner/builder, Ed McCullogh, did not necessarily have a reputation of one of our finest builders; mostly, he built moderately-priced, moderate-quality pre-fabs, but I’m still a little surprised that the buyers’ having conducted their own home inspection didn’t shield him from liability. Only deliberate deception by covering up defects and/or lying about same will strip the seller of such protection, and that’s apparently what the judge has found to have occurred here. Her decision is being appealed, so we’ll all just have to sit back, get the popcorn going, and await developments.

Lawsuit claims sale of Old Greenwich home infested by mold was fraud. Buyers seek $1.4M.

GREENWICH —  A lawsuit filed against the sellers of a home found to have sustained water damage and mold — conditions that the homebuyers allege they were unaware of at the time of the purchase — could be headed for a trial or an out-of-court settlement of $1.4 million, documents show.

The case is pending against the sellers of an Old Greenwich home purchased in September 2021 by Karl Robinson and Niamh Bonus. According to the court filings, the couple bought the home from Edward and Patricia McCullogh through the Berkshire Hathaway listing agent, Michelle Nygard, who is the daughter of the McCulloghs. The lawsuit names CTRE LLC, which does business as Berkshire Hathaway Home Services in Connecticut.

The seller, the agent and the company were sued by Robinson and Bonus in the summer of 2022 after a number of problems were found in the home, including a substantial amount of black mold, flooding damage and leaks, according to the court filings. Water was leaking into the home from both chimneys, the lawsuit stated.

The home on Deepwoods Lane was purchased in late 2021 for $2.8 million, roughly $300,000 over the original price, court documents stated. The home was marketed as "built and meticulously cared for by one owner," according to the legal complaint. Edward McCullogh has built a number of homes in the area. The house in question was built in the mid 1980s.

Robinson and Bonus claim the property condition report that was filed by the sellers during the sale process did not indicate serious problems with the house, only that a leaky roof had been fixed in the past.

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According to a memorandum issued this month by state Superior Court Judge Yamini Menon, the McCullochs, Nygaard and her family were still living in the house at the time of the home inspection. The home inspection was cut short by Nygard, the filing said.

"The report that was prepared was an abbreviated and incomplete report, missing multiple sections," the judge noted.

Before closing, Robinson and Bonus had a contractor, architect and interior designer visit and inspect the property. None of them had any indication that the condition of the property was anything other than as it appeared, the suit states.

After Robinson and Bonus moved in, they hired a flooring contractor who found extensive water damage in the home. Later inspectors found mold. The house also leaked during rainstorms. The new homeowners said they found that paint had covered over sections of the house damaged by water, according to the lawsuit. 

In one of Tougias' court filings, it was noted that that a contractor, architect and interior designer visited pre-sale,  and "none of them had any indication that the condition of the property was anything other than as it appeared." 

According to the filing by Tougias, when the new homeowners found the mold, they went ahead with a substantial renovation.

"Instead of performing a relatively straightforward remediation at a relatively modest cost, plaintiffs completely gutted the property from the attic to the basement, including the wiring, appliances and mechanicals, and rebuilt it into a house that is not even remotely the same," the defendants' lawyer stated.

He called the lawsuit "an ill-advised and improper attempt by plaintiffs to recover the cost of the expansive gut renovation and reconstruction of their house." The $1.4 million being sought by the plaintiffs was an excessive amount, as well, the lawyer argued.

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Menon issued a finding this month that the case could proceed to trial. The judge ruled that a $1.4 million payment would be granted to the plaintiffs in "a pre-judgement remedy." Russell and his clients have filed an offer of compromise, offering to to settle the case with the $1.4 million payout to end the suit. Court papers note that an insurance company has the resources to pay for the defendants legal costs and potential damages associated with the case.

A court trial could still be held if the offer of compromise is rejected.

In the memorandum allowing the case to go forward, the judge said Robinson and Bonus "have demonstrated probable cause that they will be able to prove at trial that the defendants committed intentional misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment and negligent misrepresentation through their actions in the sale of the home." 

UPDATE: The Mickster has done what I should have, namely, read the actual complaint and judges opinion granting the pre-judgment remedy. I merely looked at the court docket to confirm that a PJR had been granted (never blindly trust a newspaper reporter to get judicial proceedings right) but the Mickster went to, and read the pleadings themselves. I have now done so myself, and the reasoning behind the judges decision is made clear. You can read THE COMPLAINT HERE, and the MEMORANDUM OF DECISION HERE.

The listing broker was the owner/builder’s daughter, and her assurances to to buyers as to the quality of her father’s work, and the lack of structural problems in this particular house clearly raised the judge’s hackles. But the real problem for the defendants is the judge’s finding of at least a strong claim of deliberate covering up and hiding critical structural deficiencies, and deliberately lying on the property disclosure form, required by state law, that the McCulloughs gave to the buyers. Fraud will get you nowhere good, even when, as here, a home sale contract claims to be selling the property is “as is” condition.