Town tries to change court decision requiring it to pay fees
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

Alan Seewald, Westminster's town counsel, appeared before the Massachusetts Appeals Court on Monday arguing that the town should not have to pay more than $56,000 in attorney's fees from a 2005 case.

The town's Conservation Commission sued developer SBT Holdings in 2005 for continual violations of enforcement orders for the Wetlands Protection Act.

The Superior Court judge dismissed the case in June 2006, and in a January 2007 order he ordered the commission to pay $56,624.85 in legal fees and costs.

"This is a somewhat difficult procedural issue," Seewald said.

Appeals cases are not argued on the merits of the original facts of the case, but instead look to have a decision overturned based on an error of procedure or an error in determining the applicability of the law.

Seewald argued that both were at issue before the court on Monday.

A panel of three judges heard the case as part of an Appeals Court sitting on Monday, May 5, at Fitchburg State College. The attorneys for each side were given 15 minutes to present their arguments and answer questions from the judges.

The judges' questions to both parties hit a variety of different points and did not appear to focus on a single legal argument.

"Everybody to date has gotten this right," argued the developer's attorney Brian Foley.

A Superior Court judge in Worcester dismissed the case, in which the Conservation Commission sued citing ongoing issues of soil erosion at the East Road properties.

SBT Holdings, the developers who were represented throughout the legal proceedings by Foley, of Sterling, no longer own any of the three condominiums.