Decade-long case between Homsi, Governor's Island Club continues

LACONIA — There's a new wrinkle to Richard Homsi’s decade-long legal wrangle with the Governor’s Island Club.

Homsi, in his latest legal filings, is asking Belknap Superior Court to vacate, or set aside, its order that he pay more than $100,000 in fines and fees to avoid the possibility of losing his waterfront residence at 84 Summit Ave.

Homsi made the request in motions filed with the court just days after delivering two checks to the GIC’s law firm to satisfy the judgment issued early last month by Judge Elizabeth Leonard.

The judge gave Homsi 30 days to pay in order to avoid having the court start a process — called a writ of execution — which could lead to the sale of the property, which includes more than 230 feet of waterfront on Lake Winnipesaukee.

However, Homsi stated in a letter, which accompanied the checks, that by executing the checks the GIC was thereby agreeing to certain conditions that he laid out. Namely, it was agreeing to remove all liens on his property within 30 days, to allow him to have full access to all GIC facilities and amenities, to resume weekly trash pickup for his residence, and to put him back on the list of recipients of emails sent to GIC members.

GIC attorney Paul Fitzgerald called Homsi’s list of conditions improper.

“You don’t get to put conditions on a court order,” he said.

Fitzgerald said that on March 10 Homsi brought two checks to his office. One was for $101,077 and payment of legal fees incurred by the GIC which Homsi had been ordered by the court to pay. A second check for $21,500 was for unpaid GIC dues, he said.

The GIC has since asked the court for a ruling authorizing it to cash the $101,077 check “without restriction,” and is further seeking guidance from the court on how it should handle the second check.

Homsi has filed five pleadings with the court since the GIC asked the court for clarification on March 15.

In the court filings, Homsi argues that the GIC’s request for clarification shows bad faith on its part.

Homsi has filed two motions seeking to rescind all previous court orders in the case, which has been ongoing since 2012.

In a motion filed on March 16, Homsi asked the court to “vacate prior judgments and orders to pay money” as the GIC’s delay in cashing the checks indicates “the obvious signs of abuse is now proven by the plaintiffs.”

“This is an oft-repeated theme of the defendant,” Fitzgerald stated in an objection filed with the court on Friday. “To the extent that the litigation has caused any distress to [Homsi], it is of his own making.” He stated in the filing that Homsi’s assertion that the GIC has “refused” to cash the checks is untrue.

In another objection filed with the court, Fitzgerald argued that since Homsi has not filed any cause of action regarding the status of his membership in the GIC, it would be inappropriate for the court to insert itself into the issue. Moreover, Fitzgerald wrote that prior to delivering the $21,500 check, Homsi had received an invoice showing $23,000 would be due “before reinstatement could be considered" for Homsi as GIC member in good standing.

In a motion filed on Monday, Homsi repeated his request that the court vacate all orders that he pay money to the GIC “as parties are continuing to practice unfairly and not in good faith.” In addition, he is asking the court to annul his membership in the GIC.

Most of the money which Homsi has been ordered to pay is to reimburse the GIC for legal fees accumulated as the result of in excess of 550 pleadings and court hearings resulting from Homsi failing to comply with earlier court rulings.

In early February, Leonard ordered Homsi to pay $155,173.66. But the judge issued a supplemental order which lowered the amount by almost $32,628. She further wrote that the payment of delinquent GIC dues would not be required to prevent issuance of the writ of execution.

But in a separate objection, the GIC is asking the court what the GIC should do to “regarding the previously granted attachment to secure” the unpaid dues.