Marc Rowan

The outside counsel representing East Hampton Town in its long-running dispute with Duryea’s Lobster Deck on Fort Pond Bay in Montauk asked a New York State Supreme Court justice last week to vacate a 2019 order allowing a certificate of occupancy for the restaurant. Recently posted photos showing indoor seating led to a charge that it has “illegally converted a limited outdoor food service establishment into a full-blown restaurant and event space.”

The long-running dispute between East Hampton Town and the owner of Duryea's Lobster Deck on Fort Pond Bay in Montauk continues, with the most recent focus an effort to expand a dock and a contract with a boat share company.

Court records in a legal tangle between East Hampton Town and the owner of several Montauk resort and restaurant properties outline a series of secret conversations kept out of public view until now.

There are two seats open on the Suffolk County Family Court bench, with four candidates, including Andrea Harum Schiavoni, a sitting Southampton Town justice and North Haven resident, and Michael P. Sendlenski, a former East Hampton Town attorney.

On Aug. 13, the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals voted 4-to-0, with one recusal, to revoke the certificate of occupancy issued in February for Duryea’s Lobster Deck, the latest turn in a long-running controversy over the Montauk property that was purchased by the billionaire investor Marc Rowan in 2014.

The town lawyer at the center of a controversy over a lawsuit brought by the new owner of Duryea’s in Montauk has departed for parts unknown, but this is hardly the end of the troubling matter. Many questions remain about who knew what when in an improper — and possibly illegal — settlement arrangement he signed.

Attorneys for Marc Rowan, the billionaire investor who bought Duryea’s Lobster Deck in Montauk in 2014, and his neighbors in the Tuthill Road Association disagree sharply over jurisdiction.

The settlement was invalid because the town board did not vote on a resolution authorizing it before it was finalized, according to a statement from the town on Friday.

A controversial settlement between Marc Rowan, the owner of Duryea’s Lobster Deck in Montauk, and East Hampton Town in a dispute regarding uses of the property requires Mr. Rowan to obtain site plan approval and a permit from the town planning board, but limits the scope of the board’s site plan approval.

The East Hampton Town Board backtracked on a settlement the town reached in January with Marc Rowan, the billionaire owner of Duryea’s Lobster Deck in Montauk, following an outcry from residents.

Simmering tension on the East Hampton Town Board erupted last Thursday during a discussion about the town’s settlement with Marc Rowan, the billionaire who bought Duryea’s fish market in Montauk in 2014.

East Hampton and Marc Rowan, the billionaire co-founder of a private equity firm who bought Perry B. Duryea & Son Inc., the fish market with dining on Fort Pond Bay in Montauk, have settled a lawsuit, ending several years of dispute.