Town settles lawsuit with $320,000
Published on January 10th, 2001
STONEHAM, MA - Two households, both alike in indignation, in fair Stoneham, where we lay our scene, a civil suit in federal court has made us all feel a bit unclean...
On Dec. 28, 2000, insurers for the Town of Stoneham paid the Donovan family of 20 Emery Court $320,000, and the Donovans released all claims in a pending lawsuit against the Town. (Details of the terms and each side’s interpretation of the settlement are discussed below.) Nobody won, but there are definitely some losers involved — maybe all of us.
The troubles of the Donovans and Biggios raise questions about how town officials should exercise their power and when private disputes should become the public’s business and burden. Feuds also make folks wonder whether small town life can make it in the modern world.
The Independent sat down with both sides like good old Huck with the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons, trying to make some sense of it all.
Former Selectman John Biggio of 26 Emery Court and his neighbor John Donovan at 20 Emery Court have no nice words for each other. They each allege harassment by the other, and on July 16, 1997, Donovan sued Biggio and the Town of Stoneham claiming that Biggio used his authority as a Selectman to bully the Donovans. A civil rights component of the case allowed removal to the U.S. District Court in Cambridge.
Although the case has settled — with Donovan keeping his horses, removing his trucks and taking home $320,000 minus legal fees — feelings haven’t.
Biggio and a Jan. 8 statement from the Town’s legal team at Taylor Duane Barton and Gilman in Boston portray the claims as nonsense. Concerning the Donovan case, no criminal charges nor ethics violations were ever filed against anyone, and John Donovan admits that he violated the Stoneham Health Code.
Biggio and the Town say that they wanted to fight in court; they say that the insurance companies made the decision to settle. (One policy from Summit Risk Management covered Police Chief Passaro as a defendant and paid $80,000 to the Donovans. A second policy from National Union Fire Insurance covered the rest of the defendants and paid the remaining $240,000.)
In the Jan. 8 statement, the Town’s lawyers defend the settlement, reasoning that “the town pays nothing and saves the taxpayers money” for trial expenses and verdicts from “notoriously unpredictable juries.”
Donovan predicts what the jury would have done: believe him. “I wanted to go to trial,” he said.
Donovan took the money, but seemed — even after the payday — more interested with his right to keep horses on the property. The settlement allows Donovan to keep horses if his neighbors give written permission. The neighbors have agreed to let the horses stay.
But these are new horses; the old ones are dead. Dead horses and allegations about how the horses died and how the town enforced complaints are at the heart of the Donovan complaint.
The Town says that the horses died of old age, they were 12, 25 and 40, and that the Town simply enforced the law. But the Donovans saw things differently.
Key Donovan allegations
The following numbered points contain statements of opinion expressed in the complaint filed by the Donovans as plaintiffs in Donovan v. Town of Stoneham.
1) On Nov. 3, 1996, John Biggio asked to buy Donovan’s 20 Emery Court property. Donovan refused.
2) On Nov. 15, 1996, Biggio told Donovan that he would force him to sell the property. Biggio told Donovan he wanted to develop the property for a profit. (Michael F. Kane later signed an affidavit stating that Biggio told him that he was going to force Donovan out.)
3) Then, in April 1997, Building Inspector Robert Columbus (the father of the man who would soon become the Donovans’ lawyer) was removed from his post because he would not “find violations” on the Donovan property.
4) On March 21, 1997, Biggio’s son-in-law, Michael Bilbo of 25 Maple St. in Stoneham threatened to kill the Donovans’ horses.
5) Police Chief Passaro acting on instructions from Biggio asked his officers to pull over David Donovan, John Donovan’s teenage son, and cite him for driving his 1969 Camaro with antique plates on days other than Sunday. Officer Richard Duonolo pulled David over on May 12, 1997.
6) Also in May of 1997 the Board of Health refused to reissue Donovan a permit to keep horses based on the testimony of then Health Board Chairman Michael Rolli, a friend of Biggio’s. (The stated reason for denial was that the corral was less than 100 feet from Biggio’s property. This is a violation of the Health Code.)
The other side...
Biggio and the Town question the truth of the complaint and offer their version of events:
1 & 2) Biggio says he moved to Emery Court to live in the house where his wife had grown up. He says that he wanted to buy one more plot for a family member, not a large parcel for a development.
3) Attorneys for the Town point to the assertion that Robert Columbus was removed because he failed to cooperate with a Town scheme as the most damning evidence against Donovan and his attorney Stephen Columbus.
According to the Jan. 8 statement, the Town removed Robert Columbus when Stephen Columbus took on the Donovan case. Robert Columbus was censured by the State Ethics Commission in 1993 for giving permits to family members, so the Town was watching him closely regardless of Donovan and Biggio.
4) Biggio has sworn in previous written statements that his family had no part in the death of the Donovan horses. Autopsies of the animals performed by the Massachusetts Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) did not reveal a cause of death.
In response to suspicion from the Town, Donovan has denied playing a part in the death of his horses. He also said that he did not have insurance on the animals.
“These horses were like my children,” he said.
Looking at the police log, allegations of violence between members of the Donovan and Biggio family have been tossed back and forth over the years.
5 & 6) The law is the law, and the Town stands behind it. The corral was too close, and you can’t drive around town everyday with antique plates.
Columbus has a statement from Stoneham High teacher Bill Lucey that David Donovan was taking the Camaro in for work at the school’s shop on the day David was stopped. The law does allow owners to drive antique cars to repair shops on any day, but how would the police know where the kid was going?
Donovan claimed not to know if his corral was less than 100 feet from the property line. It was seven and a half feet from Biggio’s property.
Lawyers for the Town say this is an example of lying which weakens all of the claims made by the Donovans. The Town lawyers say that this and attorney Columbus’ assertion that his father was removed for any reason other than a conflict of interest reveal the outrageous nature of the Donovan suit.
Nagging issues
Columbus points to a footnote in the 1993 Ethics Commission censure of his father revealing that former Town Administrator Ted Ryan gave Robert Columbus permission to give permits to family members. Attorneys for the Town say the permission was for one instance and was later abused.
During his last years as Stoneham Building Inspector, Robert Columbus had to recuse himself from at least five other matters in town for which his son Stephen was the petitioner’s attorney.
And Stephen Columbus said that since neither the Donovan corral nor property line are exact rectangles, estimating the distance between the two was difficult.
After a while debating these points feels like beating dead horses.
As for the late horses, they died in the order they ate at their trough, Donovan said. The first two died on the same day, the third within two weeks. This may mean something, but for now we’ll let Lightning, Jitterbug and Cherokee rest in peace.
The settlement (Nuts, bolts trucks and money...)
The Donovans have to follow all the rules and regulations of Stoneham and state law or else they have to face the music back in federal court.
Signing something saying you won’t do what you were never supposed to do does not seem like a concession, but after you speak the words in the face of the judge, the court will look angrily upon your return.
The horses can stay as long as the neighbors give written permission. This permission is in place.
Donovan has had two dump trucks on his property in the past, at least one of which exceeded a weight restriction added to the Town Code in Oct. 1998. After extended debate over the trucks, the Town agreed to increase the settlement agreement $20,000 to $320,000 if Donovan would get rid of the big trucks. Donovan said Columbus turned down a percentage of the last $20,000.
Town Counsel Bill Solomon said the money was for Donovan to by a smaller truck complying with the 17,500 pound vehicle weight limit.
The final key component is the release of all claims, meaning the case is over as far as the Town is concerned.
Perception & ramifications
There’s almost no chance that the Donovans’ horses were faking death in hopes of some later rendezvous like our friend in fair Verona, but things are not always as they seem. People are looking for winners and losers.
In response to the question of whether the Town thought Donovan had a good case, Columbus answered, “Why do you think they settled for $320,000?”
Other attorneys not involved with the case said that the figure seems high.
Was the Town afraid or just careful? Maybe Donovan is crazier or more courageous, depending on which side of the property line you stand.
“This suit was for everyone, not just me,” Donovan said. He said he would not let the Town trample on his rights and hoped his suit helped others.
Lawyers for the Town said that they were not about to let one man’s unsubstantiated claims bring financial trouble to Stoneham. The worst case scenarios presented by the insurers were scary — “runaway jury” was the phrase uttered in a solemn whisper — and the Town played it safe. The truth was never found. It’s out there, as they say on TV.
No court says either man has committed a crime. A dispute in the woods of Stoneham was argued in Cambridge, and the final resolution came from out of state, monolith insurance companies.
In the end one man’s reputation has suffered and another man’s pets are dead. Town officials were diverted from constructive pursuits, and neighbors were made wary of each other. Biggio lost. Donovan lost. Our town lost.
But Donovan got some money. Biggio doesn’t have to worry about giant dump trucks anymore. And Stoneham officials can concentrate on the next fiscal year budget as neighbors give each other “you ain’t so bad after all” waves from passing minivans.
As the tale goes, some were pardoned and some punished; hopefully, there’ll never be another story of woe like that of Donovan and his neighbor Biggio.
— William Shakespeare and Mark Twain contributed to this story.
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