# C/O court case coming up



## BSSTG (Dec 27, 2012)

Greetings all,

I've got another case coming up regarding certificate of occupancy. 1st hearing in 2 weeks.

I was called to do a plumbing rough and the plumber had told me that this lady is converting an old historic bldg into apartments. The plumbing permit had slipped through the cracks without a building permit. It's interesting in that the downstairs is a store and has been forever I think and the upstairs was business occupancies from day 1. The old doors indicating whose business is in each suite is still there. Really cool building I might add.

Anyway, when I get there the lady (building owner) doesn't even want me in the building. I convince her that we will get nowhere unless I see what's going on. Reluctantly, she escorts me upstairs to see that they are adding a bathroom and kitchen with gas cooking. One of the suites is also already occupied as an apartment although it has no cooking. I inform her that there has been a change of occupancy without a permit and that I can't ok the install. She's fricking furious. She tells me that she lives there and I'm not telling her where she can live blablabla. I told her she can live there if some changes are made to mitigate fire hazards and so forth.

Her next step is to go to the mayor and raise a ruckus. My boss goes over and takes a look and he sees it worse than I do. Kinda funny really.

So, I issue a stop work order, and send a letter of violation. Within a few days her attorney calls me (whom I've met in court before) and asks me what needs to happen and I explain the process. She says ok that they will get a fire protection engineer to help out. Never happened. During all of this time I had to meet with this lady a couple of times to explain what was going to happen and all it did was make her more po'd. Come to find out a lot of locals think she is bipolar. So that's obviously a big help.

What's going to be interesting is that we have a new city attorney who really knows building code. When I explained all of this to him he said I had handled it properly and not to worry about it as he would take over if it went to court. i expect she will want a jury trial. It will be interesting for sure.

All of my young days spent laying pipe in ditches and the like I never thought I would be going to court over this kind of stuff. Frankly I'm on the fence with some of this code stuff. Some of it is governmet in our lives too much I think although I'm not so sure about this case. The lady says she can get out in case of fire. I always want to tell these folks that yea but it's my buddy's in the fire department that risk their lives dragging your burn't butt out in case you don't!

Happy New Year!

BSSTG


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## fatboy (Dec 27, 2012)

Good luck with the case, sounds like you have made every attempt to work with her, and you dod all the proper notifications. If you City Attorney is on board with you, should be good. The wild card is the 'jury of your peers", they probably won't give a fig leaf about what the code says.......keep us posted.

FWIW, we decriminalized building code violations, they now go to an "Adminstrative Hearing" heard by a "Administrative Hearing Officer" (who is the municicpal judge), who makes his/her decision and asseses a fine based on the case presented by the staff, and testimony from witnesses and the "violator". It is actually a pretty smooth system, a lot easier than regualr court. I've taken a half dozen cases forward without any assistance from the City Attorney.


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## jpranch (Dec 27, 2012)

Good luck with your case. I have one that is very similar. The trial is set for late February.


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## Alias (Dec 27, 2012)

Good luck with the case and it's good to hear the city attorney is on your side.

Sue


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## Rider Rick (Dec 27, 2012)

Good Luck BSSTG,

It's 50/50.


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## jj1289 (Dec 31, 2012)

The Connecticut State's Attorney prosecuted a building owner for converting a building into a 4-family dwelling and is going to jail.  The tenant in the attic died as a result of a fire.  No permits, improper egress, etc.


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## ICE (Dec 31, 2012)

jj1289 said:
			
		

> The Connecticut State's Attorney prosecuted a building owner for converting a building into a 4-family dwelling and is going to jail.  The tenant in the attic died as a result of a fire.  No permits, improper egress, etc.


He is probably guilty of involuntary manslaughter.  3 years in jail.

Now if it can be proved that he knew of the danger, it rises to the level of voluntary manslaughter. 7 years in jail.


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## BSSTG (May 6, 2013)

jpranch said:
			
		

> Good luck with your case. I have one that is very similar. The trial is set for late February.


What happened with your case?

Mine has been postponed twice. We have another pretrial coming up 5-8. Last time the atty called in sick. Of course that's after she made an open records request the eve of the last pretrial. I said no way and she chickens out! Figures. Some of these attys are something else.

BSSTG


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## jpranch (May 6, 2013)

Changed plea to guilty the day before the trial. Smart move. $150 fine. It worked out well. She got off with a small fine and the goal of compliance and a safe building were achieved.


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## BSSTG (May 6, 2013)

jpranch said:
			
		

> Changed plea to guilty the day before the trial. Smart move. $150 fine. It worked out well. She got off with a small fine and the goal of compliance and a safe building were achieved.


That's great! I love it when things work out. I've had several cases where the city atty made a really good offer and the dudes turn it down. Each time I've seen it they wind up paying a lot more and causing themselves and everyone else a lot of grief. The taxpayers pay for most of this crap too as the city invariably loses money with all of the atty costs etc. I'm all for saving taxpayers money if at all possible! My case coming up will most likely go to a jury trial as the bldg owner is really difficult, bipolar most folks say that know her. We'll see.

BSSTG


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## jpranch (May 6, 2013)

Here's wishing you the best. I was so happy mine did not go to trial. We had nine people on our team that were to testify. When you just consider their time in dollars plus the court and attorneys time it adds up very fast. Good luck and keep us posted.


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## Alias (May 7, 2013)

BSSTG -

As jpranch said, good luck and keep us posted!

Sue


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## fatboy (May 7, 2013)

Yup, good luck..........sucks going to court.


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## BSSTG (May 8, 2013)

Well, the saga continues with another continuance. The attorney was in district court and couldn't make it.

BSSTG


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## Alias (May 10, 2013)

BSSTG said:
			
		

> Well, the saga continues with another continuance. The attorney was in district court and couldn't make it.BSSTG


OMG.  Sorry to hear that.

Sue


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## fnord (May 12, 2013)

BSSTG said:
			
		

> ...she made an open records request the eve of the last pretrial. I said no way and she chickens out! ...


You declined her FOIA request? How do you do that? Was it a request for something crazy, or just the lateness or the request?


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## fatboy (May 12, 2013)

"You declined her FOIA request?"

My question also, I'd love to not have to do that exercise sometimes, but I have to, right?

Welcome to the forum fnord!


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## BSSTG (May 13, 2013)

fnord said:
			
		

> You declined her FOIA request? How do you do that? Was it a request for something crazy, or just the lateness or the request?


In Tx you have 10 days to respond to an open records request. She was attempting to make it at 4:00 pm one day and wanting the results by 5:00 pm the same day. Not happening.

BSSTG


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## BSSTG (May 13, 2013)

fatboy said:
			
		

> "You declined her FOIA request?"My question also, I'd love to not have to do that exercise sometimes, but I have to, right?
> 
> Welcome to the forum fnord!


I don't know where everybody else is but I don't think you can avoid an open records request anywhere. I wish I could get out of them sometimes! I've had several that were from attorneys and they can get lengthy.


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## BSSTG (Jun 6, 2013)

Greetings,

 Good grief! Looking back at when I started this thread. This has been going on since December!

Well, the lady fired her attorney so we have another postponement for a month.

BSSTG


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