A last-ditch effort by Edgartown attorney Benjamin J. Hall to stop the expansion of the Edgartown Stop & Shop was dismissed this week by a Dukes County Superior Court judge.
A last-ditch effort by Edgartown attorney Benjamin J. Hall to stop the expansion of the Edgartown Stop & Shop was dismissed this week by a Dukes County Superior Court judge.
Mr. Hall, whose family owns property abutting the supermarket, had previously lost a Land Court case he filed in 2019 in which he claimed the expansion would hurt the value of his property at 14 Cyprien Way. The decision denying his claims was upheld by the state Appeals Court in May 2021.
Mr. Hall filed a new lawsuit this July in Superior Court against the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, the Edgartown Building Inspector and Stop & Shop, seeking to halt construction and asking a judge to declare the project’s building permit to be invalid.
But in a 10-page decision issued Monday, Judge Mark C. Gildea granted motions to dismiss from all three defendants. Among other things, the judge ruled that Mr. Hall did not follow administrative appeals available to him before going to court. Moreover, the judge said, since the Land Court had already ruled that he had no standing to sue, Mr. Hall could not re-litigate that issue in a different court.

Comments
This guy is unbelievable. I
R Scott Patterson EdgartownThis guy is unbelievable. I think he has lost every case he ever filed. He should be disbarred.
Unfortunately in this country
we need a law mvyUnfortunately in this country, anyone can sue anyone for any reason. Whether a lawsuit has merit or not. It costs lots of money to defend lawsuits, whether baseless or substantiated. It costs lots of money to hire a lawyer, since they have nothing to 'sell' you other than their time, billed at an hourly rate, which gives them zero incentive to settle a case quickly since it will limit their income. (unless its a contingency case where they clip 1/3 of the winnings, so they only take a case with expectations of an outcome in their favor whether a win or a settlement). The REASON I won't do business with a lawyer is they have the ability to 'paper' you with motions, lawsuits, interogatories, depositions, all which require an expenditure of thousand of dollars to defend, whether baseless or not. It cost them NOTHING but their time.. IF we had a law that made a loser pay the winners legal expenses, then this sort of litigation would likely not happen as often as has been reported here... I'd be interested in the amount of money spent by stop/shop in this case.
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