Rutland Herald

Couple sell Danby house, drop suit

July 25, 2002
By PETER CRABTREE Herald Staff

DANBY — A New York couple who claimed they had been duped into buying a vacation home near the site of OMYA’s proposed marble quarry have dropped a lawsuit they brought against local real estate agents.

Irene McGrath and Stephen Schwiekert of Cold Spring, N.Y., bought a house and 13.6 acres on Dutch Hill Road in 2000 for $286,500. They sold the property to a Connecticut couple in June for $285,000, according to the town clerk.

In a lawsuit filed in Bennington Superior Court last year, the plaintiffs alleged that the agent who listed the property, Charles Mauro of Josiah Allen Real Estate in Dorset, and the agent who showed it, Alfred LaTorella of ALT Inc. of Manchester, failed to disclose what they knew about OMYA’s plans.

But last month’s sale demonstrated that McGrath and Schwiekert had not been damaged in the transaction, according to lawyers for the defendants.

“The concerns about value and the marketplace and whatnot seem not to have worked out since they were able to sell their house,” Andrew Maass, who represented Josiah Allen, said Wednesday.

The couple released all the defendants in the case, including former property owners Donald and Elizabeth Donohue, of liability, according to attorneys.

“My clients are happy with the resolution,” Maass said.

The case was due to go to trial this month. But before a jury could be picked, the court was notified that a settlement had been reached, according to the court clerk.

McGrath and Schwiekert had argued that if OMYA moved forward with its plans, as many as 80 trucks laden with ore could rumble by their house daily. They alleged “no competent realtor ... would have been ignorant of OMYA’s plans and their feared consequences.”

But LaTorella’s lawyer, Thomas Heilmann of Burlington, said Wednesday that his client only knew that OMYA’s plan was in the discussion stage. And even now, two years after the sale took place, the company has yet to apply for a permit, he said.

“It struck us as a pretty unusual type of claim when OMYA hadn’t even gone to the Act 250 authority to request that they operate the quarry,” Heilmann said. “And even if that application identified that road as a potential avenue, I think the district environmental commission would have grave concerns about them running trucks in that location.”

James Dumont, lawyer for the plaintiffs, could not be reached Wednesday.