Attached are the Memorandum of Decision and Order entering Judgment on March 27, 2024 by the trial judge W. Glenn Pierson who decided all of the Post-Verdict Motions filed by the plaintiffs and the defendants the City of Danbury and Edward Schullery that were all argued on January 8, 2024. Importantly, the attached Order grants to the Girolamettis a final judgment in the amount of $16,843,750 against both these defendants plus another $37,648.88 in costs, plus very importantly another 10% interest on top of the judgment per statute until the judgment is paid (which will add another approx. $1.7 million a year in interest exposure to the City for all further delays in payment). Should the City decide within 20 days of the judgment to file any appeal of the attached decisions, the Girolamettis will defend fully and after the appeal is resolved they will execute against the assets of the City for all of the then owing damages, interest and recoverable costs. Then the judicial marshals who will execute the judgment would be entitled to take another 15% from the City on top on the judgment and interest. This total amount could easily exceed the $20 million in total amount of insurance coverage already paid for by the City and the City would be directly liable for the deficiency.
The Girolamettis expressed great appreciation for the jury’s determination of the City’s responsibility for their losses starting in 2008 (and still accruing to this day). They also acknowledged the trial judge’s detailed analysis in a 17 page decision that upheld the verdict from all of the City’s attacks, and then imposed interest at the rate of 10% per year for any further delays in payment by the City. The Girolamettis expressed hope that the new administration at the City would finally correct the errors of the prior administration and pay the amounts determined by the judge and jury to be owing to them on account of their need to spend well over $6 million in remediation costs, plus losing all of the expanded wholesale business for some 16 years and counting. The prior administration refused to ever acknowledge responsibility for these damages even though the City’s taxpayers had purchased the liability insurance coverage which should have paid for this exposure.
On Friday October 6, 2023, a jury of six individuals in the Waterbury Superior Court rendered a verdict of $16,843,750 in favor of the plaintiffs, John & Cindy Girolametti, 43 South Street LLC and Party Depot, Inc., against the City of Danbury. This verdict was rendered after a five week trial the jury found that the City and one of its Building Officials, Edward Schullery, had acted with reckless disregard for the health and safety of the public during the permitting and construction phases of the Girolametti’s construction project performed by Rizzo Construction at 43 South Street in Danbury CT. As a result the building had never been able to comply with the structural storage loading and other requirements of the building code for its intended purposes as an expanded wholesale display and storage facility.
The Girolamettis’ goal had been to expand the wholesale business while keeping the current square footage of its existing retail party goods business. The City’s reckless disregard for the building code’s requirements led to the contractor Rizzo being allowed to build a structure that could not be safely used for the wholesale business for which it had been designed and financed. Nevertheless the City granted all of the permits, code required inspections and the certificate of occupancy without stopping the inspection and approval process so that Rizzo and others would have to redesign and remediate the deficiencies. The Girolamettis have been severely harmed by having to pay all of the mortgage, interest, taxes, maintenance and repairs and other costs for the 32,000 square foot addition for 16 years while not being able to generate any additional revenues from project. The jury found that the City of Danbury had to pay $16,843,750 as damages for the Girolamettis’ past losses through the end of 2022. However, during the delays since, the Girolamettis continue to be damaged by the same losses until they are paid and can repair their structure and wholesale business.”