5 days ago
State says lawsuit by Rye lobster shack should be dismissed
The state says a lawsuit filed by the owners of a popular Rye lobster shack against the Pease Development Authority, claiming they were targeted by former Port Authority Director Geno Marconi in a campaign of 'extortion, intimidation, and corruption,' should be dismissed because 'none of the plaintiffs' claims has legs.'
Rye Harbor Lobster Pound, owned and operated for more than 27 years by Sylvia Cheever and Nathan Hanscom, filed the lawsuit in January in Merrimack County Superior Court against the Pease Development Authority (PDA) and its Division of Ports and Harbors (the Port Authority). The Lobster Pound leases land from the PDA at Rye Harbor.
The lawsuit names Marconi and Paul Brean, executive director of the PDA, alleging Marconi improperly influenced the PDA and the Port Authority. It accuses Marconi, whose family owns and operates Geno's Chowder and Sandwich Shop in Portsmouth, of using his power to 'harm a competitor to his family business and in retaliation against the plaintiffs who were not part of Marconi's network of allied businesses and individuals who worked for or were otherwise connected with the Port Authority.'
In response to the suit, the Attorney General's Office said the plaintiffs are not entitled to relief.
'The plaintiffs have failed to state any viable claim under the (Administrative Procedures Act) or the state or federal Constitution that would entitle them to prospective relief,' the AG's Office wrote. 'The plaintiffs' claims against the PDA, the Division of Ports and Harbors, and Paul Brean should therefore be dismissed in their entirety.'
Marconi, 73, who was placed on paid administrative leave from the Port Authority in April 2024, is scheduled to go to trial in November on felony charges of witness tampering and falsifying evidence.
He faces two felony and four misdemeanor indictments that allege he shared protected motor vehicle details and pier permit fee information about Neil Levesque, vice chairman of the PDA and director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College.
The lawsuit alleges the PDA and Port Authority implemented 'harsh, anti-business policies' that 'specifically target Rye Harbor Lobster Pound due to its competition with Marconi and other businesses aligned with him in Rye Harbor State Marina.'
Those policies and actions, the suit says, include imposing an unauthorized and illegal tax, framed as a 'concessions fee' of 10% on the lobster pound's gross sales, a fee not applied to other similar businesses; interfering with its relationships with local fishermen; removing parking spots and harassing and interfering with its customers.
The lawsuit asks the court to prevent the defendants from 'applying and enforcing their illegal rules to Rye Harbor Lobster Pound's prejudice,' and seeks compensatory damages.
The AG's Office argues the plaintiffs do not allege any facts that, when taken as true, would support claims of negligence against the PDA.
'Indeed, they fail to identify any purportedly negligent acts in their complaint at all,' the state's motion says. 'The facts alleged in the complaint likewise do not support an inference that the plaintiffs suffered serious mental and emotional harm, much less identify any objective physical symptoms the plaintiffs allegedly suffered. In the absence of either of these elements, the plaintiffs have necessarily also failed to allege that the defendants' negligence foreseeably caused their emotional harm.'
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