Of all the gin joints in all the towns, in all the world, he tries to build a dock next to mine

bad move

An Ole’s Creek/Perkely Lane resident tried to build a dock in 2001; unfortunately, his neighbor Bruce Cohen is the town’s preeminent land-use attorney in one of our largest law firms. Hilarity, 22 years, and $315,000 in legal fees have ensued.

GREENWICH — Mark and Marti Marache bought waterfront land on the north end of Greenwich Cove in 2001, assuming they would one day have a family and launch their boat from their own dock.

Twenty years later, their two boys have grown into teenagers and they have yet to launch a boat from their property and the family has spent more than $315,000 in fees to attorneys and architects along the way. The legal question raised by the Marache's dock on whether — or when — local harbor managers can place binding recommendations on the state has recently become part of local maritime precedent.

You can disable Java on your browser and access the Greenwich Time’s discussion of the legal issues involved, but what I find entertaining is that the Maraches had the misfortune to pick a dock location right next to the legal equivalent of a publisher who buys ink by the barrel, and, worse, their proposed dock would have “ruined” Cohen’s view. Attorney Cohen has his own wharf to look at, so presumably, it’s only other peoples’ docks that offend him. But if, like him, you can preserve your view by running a case up and down the regulatory and judicial system for decades, at no cost, who would blame you?

I imagine that Perkley Lane block parties have been … fun over the past years.