Costly Appeal initiated by the Holland Selectboard under James Wettlaufer against the LaMountain’s adjudicated.
The town’s repeated attempt to deny the LaMountain’s, farmer status failed for the third time when Honorable Justice Cornelius Mortiarty II rejected the town’s request again back on April 21, 2010.You would think that the Board of Selectmen under James Wettlaufer got the message after the third time, but they didn’t. Wettlaufer and the rest of the selectboard appealed the ruling of Justice Mortiarty to the Appeals Court of the Commonwealth which issued its ruling in the matter on June 26, 2012,
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Comments:
Posted on 6 Jul 2012, 13:06 by SmHWe All Need Farms
According to page 3 of the attached ruling, the 3 Judges in Boston unanimously called the towns case against LaMountain and Northeast a "bald assertion" with no "threshold". Is that the same as an outright lie ? Why does Wettlaufer want to stop farming in town so bad.
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Posted on 10 Jul 2012, 16:00 by Caring Citizen
Cost to taxpayers?
please let us know what this is costing the Town of Holland, It is so sad that the Little Town of Holland is also the Little Town of Hate and Vindictive All of us who moved from Big cities are sad that this little town could be such a letdown due to personal battles in politics.
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Posted on 10 Jul 2012, 19:24 by -----!....!----
Three surgeons
Three surgeons are talking about who are the easiest patients to operate on. The first surgeon says electricians are easier because they are all color coded. The second surgeon says it is librarians because they are all in alphabetical order. The third surgeon can't choose between politicians or cops. It's a toss up he says. They are both easy to operate on because "neither one of them have a heart, or guts, or balls, or brains, or a spine.. And their heads and asses are interchangeable."
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Posted on 13 Aug 2012, 12:53 by Thee Farm
Cowards
Just got word that this case is officially closed as the deadline to request further review by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has come and gone without the town responding.. So now all that is left is for the farm to recover damages from the town.
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Posted on 14 Aug 2012, 6:57 by CHA
CHING!
Time to cash in!.. Just so everyone knows Town meeting the 23rd they want you to let them borrow 200,000 +.. YOUR TAXES pay for these sums borrowed.
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Posted on 17 Dec 2014, 11:40 by Law-Mountain
Partial Settlement
UPDATE......
Settlement
In 2008 Wettlaufer, Johnson, Foster, fife and other town officials did initiate environmental enforcement actions against Northeast concepts based on false information and reports to the state by town officials.. Northeast Concepts won all the cases except for one.
The one they lost was because their attorneys did not meet discovery deadlines and a default judgment was entered. This case never went to trial and all agricultural exemptions were ignored after the default judgment entered.
The damages caused by the default judgment were substantial and as a result fines were given and the land was lost by Northeast Concepts.
The State Appeals Court ruled in a related companion case brought by the town against Northeast .
Concepts that the Town and DEP could not enforce environmental laws against a farm, and further ruled the property is in fact being used for commercial agriculture
Northeast Concept filed a malpractice case against the lawyers who failed to answer discovery resulting in the default judgment and settled the case last August for close to 700,000 dollars.
This number does not begin to cover the cost of the damages incurred.
Northeast Concept has an open Federal Civil Rights Case pending against the town and individual officials including James Wettlaufer and Howard fife and expects to recover the rest of its damages.
The property has changed hands and the new owners Blodgett Farm @ Mashapaug is working with the state to resolve any outstanding issues and hopes to work closely with town officials to prevent further problems.
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