Judge tells homeowner in Gov. Island case he could lose his house if he doesn’t comply

LACONIA — A superior court judge has issued a forceful ruling in the decade-long legal battle between the Governors Island Club and one of its property owners who could potentially lose his house if he fails to abide by the judge's orders.

Superior Court Judge James D. O’Neill III ordered Richard Homsi to remove out buildings on his lakeside property at 84 Summit Ave., and pay more than $130,500 in fines and legal fees to the GIC, which is the homeowners’ association for properties on Governors Island in Gilford, as well as 10 properties along Summit Avenue, in Laconia.

In his three-page ruling, issued Tuesday, O’Neill twice found Homsi in contempt of court, once for failing to submit periodic financial affidavits in accordance with court requirements, and again for failing to remove structures that he had erected on his property without prior approval from the GIC board.

O’Neill ordered Homsi to take down a Quonset hut-type structure, carports, and a shed and clean up the yard within 30 days. If Homsi fails to meet that deadline, the order allows the GIC to go onto Homsi’s property, do the work itself and bill Homsi for the cost.

When Homsi had failed earlier to remove the prohibited structures, the judge last year levied a $100-a-day fine for every day they remained beyond Sept. 17. O’Neill wrote that Homsi has 30 days to pay those fines which now total $18,900. Further, O’Neill ordered Homsi to pay $28,607.53 in attorney’s fees to the GIC which he was ordered to pay last August, but has failed to do so.

Citing Homsi’s failure to make timely payments of $500 a month ordered by the court to pay down GIC’s legal fees and “the additional awards granted to the plaintiff due to the defendant’s continued failure to comply with this court’s earlier order(s),” O’Neill found that if Homsi fails to make the ordered payments in 60 days then the GIC has the court’s permission to obtain a writ of judgment on the 84 Summit Ave. property.

The writ of execution would empower the county sheriff to take possession of the property with the possibility of the sheriff overseeing its sale in order to satisfy the judgment against Homsi.

O’Neill stated that the 60 days is intended to provide Homsi with “an opportunity to pay all sums owed.”

The judge, writing in a footnote, declined the GIC’s request that he order Homsi be sent to jail if he fails to comply with the order.

Homsi, on Wednesday, called O’Neill’s ruling “unfair” and promised to contest it.

However, GIC attorney, Paul Fitzgerald, welcomed the decision, saying he was glad the judge had issued a “decisive” ruling which “had teeth.”

Fitzgerald said that in addition to the $47,507 in fines and fees enumerated in the ruling, Homsi is also required to pay an additional $83,000 in legal fees to the GIC which have accrued in the longest-running current civil case in Belknap Superior Court.

Homsi, who has been acting as his own lawyer in the case, said he planned to file a motion for reconsideration, arguing O’Neill failed to consider a 2017 ruling which, Homsi said, allowed the carport on his property to stay until “the project is complete.”

At a court hearing last week, Homsi told the judge he has not proceeded with the project because he has been unable to obtain the financing. “I will comply once the garage is built,” he said Friday.

In a statement emailed to The Daily Sun, Homsi said O’Neill’s rulings in the case have been inconsistent and that his order that he pay for GIC’s legal fees amounted to “judicial abuse.”

He also suggested that the judge and Fitzgerald were somehow in league with each other because they “obviously have an understanding on these cases as Judge O’Neill consistently agrees with Fitzgerald.”

Homsi said if his motion for reconsideration is not granted he plans to appeal the case to the state Supreme Court.

According to statements made in court on Friday, Homsi has appealed this case to the state’s highest court three times in the past and each time the court has declined to take the case.