The latest legal battle in the internecine warfare at Courtyard Manor Cooperative in New Rochelle is about trash — seven large dumpsters of the stuff — that an ex-board president allegedly stashed on the property.
The lawsuit seeks only $35,359 in damages. But to understand the intensity of the fight, one has to consider other lawsuits filed by former and current co-op board members in the past six months.
In April, ex-board president Joseph DeCicco sued current president Mario Costanz and the corporation that governs the co-op for $6 million, claiming they were illegally blocking him from selling 36 apartments.
Before that, in March, the entire board of directors was voted out of office and replaced by a group led by Costanz.
Before that, in February, Costanz and other residents sued DeCicco and the co-op board for $5 million, accusing them of running, or failing to rein in, a criminal enterprise.
Courtyard Manor consists of three high-rise buildings with 288 apartments on Pelham Road in New Rochelle. The apartments are owned by 210-220-230 Owners Corp. and the residents own shares in the corporation.
In February, Costanz accused DeCicco of racketeering and the rest of the board of directors of lax oversight.
DeCicco does not live at Courtyard Manor but has shares in 36 apartments and was president of the board for at least 15 years.
“While he was president of the corporation,” Costanz’s complaint states, “DeCicco led a criminal enterprise engaged in a scheme to defraud and steal from the corporation and its shareholders.”
DeCicco allegedly used co-op credit card to buy materials for his own properties within the co-op and elsewhere and to pay for other personal expenses; wrote corporation checks to a “ghost entity” he controlled; charged $250,000 for personal expenses on credit cards; took kickbacks from co-op contractors and used the contractors to repair and renovate his apartments; diverted heating oil deliveries to properties at other locations; and stole shares in ten apartments owned by the corporation.
DeCicco has not formally answered the allegations but his attorney has filed a motion to dismiss a civil racketeering charge.
In April, with a new board of directors, the corporation issued a default notice against DeCicco claiming that he had sublet apartments or assigned apartment leases without proper consent.
DeCicco responded with a lawsuit accusing the corporation he once headed of discouraging brokers from showing his apartments and advising potential buyers that he was not the owner, “with the knowledge that their statements were not true.”
He said he derives substantial income for the benefit of his family by renting the apartments, and the “efforts to terminate his leases and evict his tenants (are) causing him severe financial difficulty.”
Since the election of a new board of directors, his complaint states, the new board has governed “in a manner to illegally and selectively enforce certain portions of the house rules, by-laws and proprietary leases … for the purpose of harassing the plaintiff and his tenants.”
In the latest complaint, filed by the corporation, the co-op claims that DeCicco stored personal property in basement rooms and failed to pay for use of the spaces.
After DeCicco’s “ouster from the board of directors,” the new board demanded that he remove the property. He allegedly failed to do so, and a contractor filled seven 30-yard dumpsters and hauled them away.
DeCicco refused to pay $15,129 for the removal of his property, according to the complaint, and another $20,229 for alleged violations of house rules.
