For seven years, David Frost claims, he has worked without pay as caretaker of an organic farm in the Hudson Valley. Now he wants his due.
Frost filed two lawsuits this month, accusing Emily Falencki and the Lentex Co. of breaking promises to give him the caretaker house and reimburse him for $382,922 in back pay and expenses.
“Emily Falencki will be unjustly enriched,” Frost asserts in one of the cases, “if the promises of her grandmother, father and she are not enforced.”
Falencki, a Canadian artist who lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, did not respond to an email asking for her side of the story.
Frost began working for the Falencki family in 1987, as caretaker of Cascade Farm Estate in Patterson, a 200-acre property that straddles Putnam and Dutchess counties.
The farm was owned by William Falencki, a Polish-American investment company executive, and his wife, Karin, also from Poland.
Frost was required to live on the estate year-round. His compensation included use of the caretaker house, the utilities, annual salary, health insurance and out-of-pocket expenses.
In 1996, the Falencki”™s son, John, formed Cascade Farm School, an organic farm, and Frost”™s responsibilities increased significantly.
William Falencki died in 1990, his son, John, in 2003, his wife, Karin, in 2010.
Karin”™s granddaughter, Emily, inherited Lentex Co., the owner of the farm, according to one of the lawsuits, and became Frost”™s supervisor.
Frost states that he had developed a warm, personal relationship with Emily”™s grandparents. He was Karin”™s personal assistant when she was in residence at the estate and he was with her when she died.
Karin promised him many times that the caretaker house would become his, according to a complaint filed July 7 in Dutchess Supreme Court, for all his efforts for the family and the farm and “because she wished to provide him a form of retirement benefit.”
He claims that her son, John, repeated the promise before he died and that her granddaughter, Emily, confirmed, after she inherited the estate, that the home would become his upon the “completion of probate.”
Frost states that he put his own money into the caretaker house, beginning in the 1990s, for flooring, rooms, decks and a pool. And because of the promises, he never pursued other employment opportunities.
But last year, Frost alleges, Emily “indicated” that the house would not be transferred to him.
Frost is asking the Dutchess court to award him title to the house, free of liens and claims, and he is demanding $500,000 in damages.
He also is demanding $382,922 in back pay and expenses, in a July 10 complaint filed in U.S. District Court in White Plains.
In mid-2011, he states, Emily suspended his $40,000 salary, his health insurance, payments for utilities on the house, and out-of-pocket expenses, “due to the ongoing probate process associated with Karin Falencki”™s last will and testament.”
Emily reassured him that when probate concluded, she would restore his salary and health insurance and cover his expenses, according to the complaint. He was expected to continue working in the same position and performing the same duties.
“While this was less-than-ideal,” he states, he accepted because he trusted that Emily was acting in good faith.
The probate process has long since concluded, according to the complaint, but Emily still has not compensated him.
Frost calculates that he is owed $240,000 for foregone wages, $112,693 for health care and $30,229 for utilities.
He is demanding $382,922 for breach of contract, failure to pay earned wages, failure to pay minimum wage and overtime.
Frost is represented by Poughkeepsie attorney Allan B. Rappleyea in the Dutchess lawsuit, and by Manhattan attorney Casey Wolnowski in the federal case.
