The Montauk Gazette© Publication of Record - The Incorporated Township of Montauk Vol. VI no. 1 (5,500 printed, 5,100 mailed), August, 2009 50 To all of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Incorporated Township of Montauk Town of Montauk, Inc. Your Rights and also to the honorable Governor David A. had been filed after Montauk received a clear and Your Lands Patterson, Chief Justice Jonathan Lippman, unambiguous order upon Your Montauk Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, and all intervention, made as a of the magistrates, officials, Senators and matter of right pursuant to Assemblymen of the State of New York, see: Update, at p. 2 Take a stand Suffolk County Legislators, the defendants in re: Town of Montauk, Inc., and the 1788 They are yours East Hampton has two Take them back! Towns of the State of New York, governments, the chartered 1686 Trustee Corporation PLEASE TAKE NOTICE: and a legally ficticious town The five year matter of the Town of Montauk, board. The issue in Montauk Inside Inc. v. Gov. Pataki, et. al. ended 2/12/09 at is a state supported East Hampton town board posing UPDATE ................1 the New York State Supreme Court, Court of as Montauk's government The Plan ................1 Appeals in Albany. An assembly will be under the 1909 Town Law. The Issue ...............1 convened at the see: Issue, at p. 5 Threatened! .............3 "Freeholders" ...........4 Montauk firehouse Montauk town meeting....5 Montauk v. Pataki, et. al. Bob Ficalora.............5 Sunday, Sept. 6th, 2009 was originally intended to be joined using an Order to Conquest of New York.....6 Show Cause (OSC) in the WHY? ..................7 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to consider why Montauk's taxes should not same manner and type as in Wrongful Jurisdiction .....7 the 1851 case of Henry P. The First Assembly - Chapter be paid to the Town of Montauk until the Hedges, et. al v. Trustees of Two of Laws of 1691 ......9 Town of East Hampton shows how it claims the Freeholders and Montauk's Incorporations . 11 Montauk's franchise to tax and to govern. Inhabitants of the Town of Court Documents at Ten or more Montauk property owners are Easthampton that led to www.montauk.com .......12 immediately sought to agree to pay their tax Montauk being split off of Easthampton and then being bill into an attorney's escrow. incorporated by the State Legislature on April 2nd Sandwiches and refreshments will be served. 1852. see The Plan at p. 3 Montauk Gazette, August, 2009 1 Update from p.1 town board drew a complete blank. the State of New York continued the There is nothing there! CPLR sect..1012 in the fishing rights laws of the province, contained the Second, the decision states that "the case of People v. Stuart Bennet entire Declaration of Independence Court of Appeals did not recognize it as Vorpahl. The high court of Chief Justice within it, and also expressly protected a corporation, or as the governing body Judith S. Kaye that recognized the colonial charters to bodies politic and of Montauk, in People v Vorpahl (2 intervention by the Incorporated corporate such as the Dongan Patents. NY3d 781)". While the acceptance of Township of Montauk (People v. On January 26, 1788 the draft of the the intervention made as of right and Vorpahl, (2 N.Y.3d 781, Motion No. 277 proposed new federal Constitution was clear language of that decision indicated May 6, 2004). before the New York Assembly for to us that it did, it is not for an inferior The record before the high court in ratification when a letter was published court to flatly and adversely interpret a in Schenectady by James Madison (as Vorpahl included Mr. Ficalora's 2001 high court decision. Affidavit as Amicus containing a "Publius") in the Independent Journal Third, the court held that the comprehensive legal history of Montauk (now Weekly Gazette, Federalist #45). MFOP/Montauk Trustee Corporation is and the Articulated Rights and There was an urgent concern for the not successor to the 1852 corporation of Constitution of the Township of Montauk sovereign rights of the Freeholders and the Trustees of Montauk despite its adopted in December 2000. Nothing in Inhabitants of the State of New York efforts and assertions and a board the Court of Appeals order evidences because they were deemed to be containing a majority of Montauk that it denied intervention or otherwise threatened by the proposed new property owners. failed recognize the corporation as the federalist Constitution. The argument is more fully governing body of Montauk. On March 7th, 1788 Chapter 64 of presented in attorney Michael H. In any event, the Town of the laws of 1788 was signed into law by Sussman's Motion to Reargue which Easthampton has two governments: the Governor George Clinton that either can be read at http://www.montauk.com. Trustees of the Freeholders and established or affirmed the townships of When the 1683 Constitution of New Inhabitants created by colonial patents New York and held that: York was disallowed in 1686 by King and a 1686 charter and a Town Board “The freeholders and inhabitants of James II for the making of laws, the government of legally undocumented each and every of the said towns… who Dongan Patents granted to townships origin or existence. The imposition of a are or shall be qualified to vote at town the sovereign jurisdiction of the feudal state-supported, but legally fictitious, meetings, shall forever hereafter have tenure of the royal Manor of East body posturing as a government over Full power and authority and they are Greenwich in the county of Kent the lands and waters of Montauk hereby directed and required to (Greenwich Palace, the royal residence constitutes the usurpation of Montauk assemble together and hold town at London) over which Parliament had property owners' longstanding franchise meetings…”(emphasis added) no jurisdiction. The patents granted the right to tax and to govern under the A Freeholder in New York liberty and privilege to govern by town 1686 Dongan Patent and, therefore, (proprietor, yeoman) is a property owner meeting for the making, administering continues to violate Chapter 2 of the who holds his land in fee simple with a and enforcement of law “so alwayes as laws of 1691. sovereign jurisdiction within its meets the said acts and order be in no The May 8th 2007 decision entered and bounds. A township governed by a wayes repugnant to the laws of by the Appellate Division in Town of town meeting of the TRUSTEES of the England and of this Province which Montauk, Inc. (40 A.D 3rd 772, 773 (2d freeholders and inhabitants assembled now are or hereafter may be Dept. 2007)) is easily argued against is an extension of that sovereignty. Such established". simply by applying the same argument a government has sovereign jurisdiction The foregoing feudal tenure was to the Town Board government in within the meets and bounds of the issued to most of the English colonies in Easthampton. township of the lord of the fee within it: America (now states or First, it argues that the Town of eminent domain, escheat, and the commonwealths), and for that reason Montauk, Inc. is not an established making, administering and enforcement the Dongan patents have been referred corporation because it has filed no of law. These are foundational American to as having granted “the rights of a incorporation papers with the liberties of good government.. state within a state”. The protection of Department of State.While Montauk was such colonial charters was a central incorporated in 1686 and 1852 and we cause in the Declaration of sought judicial interpretation of them, Independence. The 1777 Constitution of inquiries with that department about the Montauk Gazette, August, 2009 2 or the property of the Town of Montauk The Plan from p. 1 under the 1686 Dongan Patent. I first came to Montauk in 1987 when Apparently, Judge underwood was It seemed easy, the case was my wife Helen Ficalora's now late parents spooked in April 2004 when a corporation essentially res judicata. Madge and Bob Schneiderman asked for established to protect the Benson Despite the court's unfortunate my help. They owned the Breakers Motel Reservations showed up on his desk avoidance of our cause, nothing changes and when its access to the beach was after nine years dealing with parties that the fact that we are left with an illegal threatened I took a ten month leave of could not claim to represent YOU, and unconstitutional state supported absence from my job at IBM to oversee a Montauk property owners. entity claiming and injuring our law suit, the Breakers Motel, Inc. et al v. commonwealth while usurping our Sunbeach Montauk II, Inc., et ano. The In 2006, when I grew unhappy with the handling of the Breakers case, I filed sovereign franchise right to tax and to case was over two years old and stalled govern by town meeting. by attorneys. I brought on new counsel a brief as Amicus on behalf of MFOP to inform the court that it couldn't do What we were unsuccessful in and otherwise took care of business until obtaining through our judiciary I believe I went back to my job at IBM. anything for Mr. Biase because all Montauk property owners were not can be accomplished by a proposed After Madge died in 1991 I returned to before the court. The decision was process of civil duty to force the same take care of the business and the lawsuit.