Town Wins Round in Moujabber Case

Superior Court Judge in Dukes County Upholds Decision to Revoke
Permit for Illegal North Bluff Garage

By IAN FEIN

Marking a significant step in the saga surrounding the three-story
garage owned by Joseph G. Moujabber in Oak Bluffs, a Dukes County
Superior Court judge this week ruled that the town zoning board of
appeals and building inspector were correct when they revoked the
building permit for the structure.

While the decision resolves only the first in a series of lawsuits
related to the embattled garage in the North Bluff district of town, it
represents a key win for the town and neighbors because all the other
cases challenge actions that stemmed from the 2004 revoking of the
permit.

Had the court found in favor of Mr. Moujabber in this particular
case, he would have been entitled to keep the garage as it stands,
according to town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport. The town, through legal
and procedural channels, wants to demolish the structure which was built
two years ago in open violation of town zoning laws and has earned the
moniker Garage Majal from critics.

"This is now a closed chapter," Mr. Rappaport said of
the case decided this week. "But there are still several more
rounds to go."

The building permit case had been set for an April trial, but during
pretrial work in recent weeks attorneys for both sides reached a
settlement. The attorneys presented their agreement to The Hon. Richard
F. Connon on Tuesday, who issued a corresponding judgment to dismiss the
appeal.

Mr. Moujabber in the agreement also waived his right to appeal the
superior court decision.

It is unclear whether the death of longtime Oak Bluffs resident
Douglas A. Abdelnour Sr. in late January affected the course of the
case. Mr. Abdelnour was a close family relative and business associate
of Mr. Moujabber.

Mr. Moujabber could not be reached for comment this week.

On Wednesday Mr. Rappaport praised both sides for working together
to resolve the case, and attorney Michael Vhay, a partner in the Boston
law firm Piper Rudnick, who is representing Mr. Moujabber, echoed his
remarks. Mr. Vhay said that he hopes the agreement will lead to more
cooperation among the different parties.

"We thought it would advance our interest in achieving a
solution to the entire situation," Mr. Vhay said of the agreement.
"We hoped that if we agreed to this first step, it would properly
focus everyone on fixing the problem, rather than fighting over how we
got into it in the first place."

The garage conflict dates back to November 2003, when Mr. Moujabber
applied to the town building department for a permit to replace an
existing 240-square-foot garage on his Sea View avenue extension
property at a cost of $22,000. Less than six months later, the project
grew into a three-story building with balconies, sliding glass doors and
a roof deck.

Building inspector Richard Mavro, who has since resigned, issued a
cease and desist order and then revoked the building permit in May 2004,
a decision upheld by the zoning board of appeals that summer. Mr.
Moujabber appealed the decision in superior court in August 2004.

The superior court judgment this week relied on two written opinions
authored by Mr. Rappaport in the summer of 2004, which argued that the
permit should not have been granted because the building inspector
lacked the authority to authorize nonconforming accessory structures.

Meanwhile, at least two other Moujabber garage cases are still
working their way through the courts.

One case challenges the demolition order signed by Mr. Mavro in
December 2005, and the other challenges two denials by the Copeland Plan
District Review Board for plans filed by Mr. Moujabber to connect his
garage to the main building on his property.

Mr. Rappaport said this week that if the building permit case had
gone the other way, the Copeland board approval would have been
unnecessary because the permit was issued before the Copeland district
was adopted. Town voters added the North Bluff neighborhood to the
Copeland District district of critical planning concern in April 2004.