Former Town Justice Cahill Loses a $1 Million Appeal

An appeal to the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court by Catherine A. Cahill, a former East Hampton Town justice, seeking the reversal of a 2014 Supreme Court decision in which she was ordered to pay $1 million to a man who had been her husband’s partner in a land deal, was rejected on April 12. At the same time, the four Appellate Division judges denied a request by the partner, Nelson Gerard, to have the amount of money he was awarded by the lower court tripled.

The case stemmed from transactions involving land on Green Hollow Road in East Hampton called Buckskill Farm. Justice Cahill’s late husband, Marvin Hyman, an attorney, had shepherded plans for the land’s development and its eventual purchase by the town of 6.8 acres of its total of 9.6 for $1.9 million, with money from the community preservation fund.

Mr. Gerard invested $2 million for the purchase of the property; Mr. Hyman, an attorney, had put in $350,000 and his services in moving the proposal through the East Hampton Town Planning Board. The profits envisioned at the time were dependent on the number of lots that would be approved.

Mr. Gerard accused Mr. Hyman of defrauding him after the town bought most of the property by transferring $1.895 million from their corporate account into a personal account. He sued Mr. Hyman in 2005, but Mr. Hyman died of prostate cancer just weeks after the lawsuit was launched. Two years later, Mr. Gerard sued Justice Cahill, claiming fraud and breach of an oral contract. He lost the case in Supreme Court and appealed. While the Appellate Division agreed with Mr. Gerard in part, it returned the matter of the oral agreement to the Supreme Court, which led to a decision in Mr. Gerard’s favor on April 21, 2014, by Justice Paul J. Baisley Jr., who had presided over a non-jury trial. 

The Appellate Division decision this month upholding Justice Baisley’s verdict requires Ms. Cahill, who served as an East Hampton Town justice for 20 years, a position she retired from in 2013, to give Buckskill Farm, the corporate entity which is now in Mr. Gerard’s hands, $1,045,400.