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Suit alleges Ernie Boch Jr. is a bad neighbor
By adamg on Fri, 01/15/2010 - 12:25pm
A neighbor of Ernie Boch, Jr. yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against him, alleging three years of ongoing renovations and expansion at the Boch estate in Norwood have sent the man into depression and given him asthma.
The suit, filed in US District Court in Boston by Glenn Arrigo and his wife Elise, alleges that near constant noise from construction and a large generator, spotlights shining onto their property and the destruction of large trees along the property line have helped deprive the couple of their Fourth, Fifth and Fifteenth Amendments and that Boch is attempting to coerce them into selling him their property so he can expand his manse even more.
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Comments
Eeek, Ernie!
Wow. This is really something. I had time only to skim the complaint, but I cannot quite figure out how there is any constitutional violation here, or how someone could have filed this suit in federal court (versus state court).
Constitutional rights protect you from goverment actions. Ernie Boch is a private citizen. Framing this as a section 1983 action doesn't change that. If he was challenging the decision of one of the Norwood boards I could see it, but since the Town is not a party, I cannot figure it out. All of the other claims (trespass, nuisance, etc.) seem to be the quintessential state claims. Does anyone know if there is something else at work here?
ok Ernie! or his lawyer! you
ok Ernie! or his lawyer! you have no idead until you see this property!
Federal Question
Agreed, there is no diversity here so they're leaning on a federal question to get into a fed court? If Boch's attorneys don't file a 12(b) on this matter they should be fired and sued for malpractice.
And what is with the 15th amendment claim? How does the right to vote have anything to do with this?
This is basically a breach of contract claim with private nuisance and negative implied easement issues - all local. Screw it, I'd push for Rule 11 sanctions just for spite here.
update
ps - I thought the 15th amendment issue was just a typo, intended to be 14th, but after reading the pleading, nope, they really did use 15th amendment several times. Really sloppy attorney work.
From boston.com: "When the
From boston.com:
"When the car giant decided some trees on his residential Norwood property could come on down, his frustrated next door neighbors called it a deal-breaker, and were driven to file a lawsuit."
Adam, are you writing blurbs for boston.com? That's some Gaffinesque writing.
Heh, I wish
Emily Sweeney is a mad good writer - she drove that blurb.
I take umbrage..
"After the Arrigos filed their lawsuit, the story was quickly picked up by a local news blog, UniversalHub.com, which posted a copy of their complaint online."
I believe the correct term would be "the" local news blog. Just saying.
Thanks, but ...
All hail Emily Sweeney. No, really. She didn't have to credit me - lawsuits are public documents and, unlike me, she actually interviewed both parties, so the mention was most cool.
You cannot believe what a bully Ernie B JR is!
He took over the neighborhood - bought all the houses - knocked them all down
Now he is torturing the Arrigos to make them leave
He is constantly running ridiculously loud generators 24/7 for no reason -
shining spotlights on the arrigos, cutting down their trees etc etc.
Just because he has lots of $ he thinks he can do whatever he wants
Look at the satellite view
I feel bad for the Arrigos. Looks like Boch is trying to build an estate in the middle of a middle class neighborhood.
check out the satellite map.
aerial view
yes, it looks like the Arrigos' house is right in the way of the new wing that would connect the manse to the massive garage.
I wish Google et all would stop referring to these as satellite images; they are taken from a plane. Only the far out ones are satellite.
Not always
Google has purchased imaging from GeoEye who has a 1-meter resolution satellite imaging capability. So, some of their high res close-ups these days are coming from satellite and not plane photography.
You can see some of their handiwork here: http://www.geoeye.com/CorpSite/gallery/Default.aspx
It's pretty impressive.