CAROGA - The Third Appellate Division of state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a July state Supreme Court decision that required Canada Lake property owner Joseph Herms to demolish his lakefront structure within eight months.
The court agreed with acting state Supreme Court Justice Richard Giardino that Herms also must pay the town a $50,000 civil penalty and reimburse its legal fees.
The town and Herms have had legal battles since 1999 over Herms' structure on Canada Lake. Herms originally intended to build a camp on the lake, but repeatedly was denied permits by the town.
Herms then applied for permits to build a boathouse, which the town approved. After Herms built part of the structure, town officials ordered him to stop construction because, according to them, the structure did not fit the description of a boathouse and instead appeared to be a camp.
The court's decision supported Giardino's opinion that the structure was not a boathouse.
"In 1999, when plaintiff issued defendant's permit to construct a boathouse, a boathouse was defined as ... 'a structure with direct access to a navigable body of water which is used for the storage of boats and associated equipment and ... which does not have bathroom or kitchen facilities and is not designed for lodging or residency,'" the appellate court's decision stated. "The structure built by defendant falls short of this definition."
Herms said Thursday he and his Saratoga attorney, Cynthia Feathers, are planning to appeal the case once more. The Town Board, he said, never officially voted to sue him, which he said was illegal.
"This court, factually, is not even correct. It's a boathouse, and the first judge wasn't correct either," Herms said. "It almost makes every boathouse in the Adirondacks subject to anyone who doesn't like it to get a court to tear it down."
The town's attorney, Salvatore Ferlazzo of the Albany law firm Girvin & Ferlazzo, said any future appeal by Herms would merely be a means of further delaying the case. He said Herms could try to take the case to the state Court of Appeals, but noted the court must grant Herms permission to argue the case there, an action he said is "very infrequent."
Because of that, he said the case is "99.9 percent done."
"The town is very pleased that this long-lasting, unnecessary litigation is now complete," Ferlazzo said. "The Appellate Division clearly rejected each and every one of Mr. Herms' points, as did Judge Giardino, and at this point, the boathouse will be coming down."
Feathers did not return multiple phone calls and an e-mail seeking comment.
Zach Subar covers rural Fulton County news. He can be reached at ruralnews@leaderherald.com.