Officials ordered to hold their tongues on lawsuit
Court date scheduled for Aug. 20 as Moskovitz seeks dismissal of suit
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - A judge has ordered Manalapan officials to clam up about a lawsuit they have filed against a former municipal appointee.

Following a filing that seeks dismissal of the matter, state Superior Court Judge Richard W. English issued a gag order forbidding Manalapan's administration, elected officials and contracted professionals from further providing the press with information regarding the township's recent filing of litigation against the lawyer who served as Manalapan's township attorney in 2005.

After the township filed a complaint against him in Superior Court, Freehold, Stuart Moskovitz, who served as municipal attorney in 2005, filed an order to show cause in an effort to get the lawsuit dismissed. The matter is scheduled to be heard by English on Aug. 20.

English's court order in the civil matter is dated July 23. In it he states that until a decision is rendered in the matter, Manalapan's elected officials, employees, township attorney and staff are "enjoined and restrained from communicating with the press and the public concerning the subject matter of the litigation."

The News Transcript had submitted an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request to the township clerk seeking copies of any official correspondence between Moskovitz and former Township Administrator Alayne Shepler.

The litigation filed June 14 by Manalapan against Moskovitz referred to a memo dated April 15, 2005, a copy of which was being sought by the newspaper for a follow-up story in the matter.

Citing the judge's order, the newspaper's OPRA request for that memo was denied.

Township Clerk Rose Ann Weeden referred a reporter to special counsel Daniel McCarthy, who said he interpreted the judge's order to mean the township could not provide any documentation despite the fact the memo was specifically referred to in the filed litigation.

Carolyn Casagrande is Manalapan's current township attorney. The Township Committee retained McCarthy to pursue the lawsuit against Moskovitz.

Manalapan officials allege Moskovitz breached his responsibility to the township when he drew up a contract of sale for the township's purchase of two single-family homes on Route 522. The Herbert and Dreyer properties are in front of the Manalapan Recreation Center.

The township is seeking damages and costs from Moskovitz.

Commenting earlier in the matter, Moskovitz contended that Manalapan officials have no right to take any action against him due to the fact there is a state statute protecting him from just such an action. He said the New Jersey Tort Claims Act indemnifies public officials from being sued and applies to him and the duties he performed as township attorney during 2005.

The township's complaint was accompanied by an affidavit of support from a recognized legal expert in such matters.

In the complaint, Manalapan alleges that Moskovitz prepared a contract of sale that left the township unprotected and therefore unable to seek remuneration for the expense of removing an underground oil tank, soil remediation costs incurred by cleaning up the heating oil contamination, and the cost of cleaning up some farm field pesticide contamination that was also discovered on the purchased properties.

Moskovitz has said that a 2004 court order that settled litigation brought against Manalapan by the former owners of the Dreyer tract forced the township to buy the Herbert and Dreyer homes regardless of whether there was contamination of the site. He has said he believes the contract of sale he prepared afforded Manalapan all the protection the township needed.

Manalapan purchased the Herbert house, 95 Freehold Road (Route 522), for $432,000, and the Dreyer house, 93 Freehold Road, for $465,500. The township took possession of the property on June 8, 2005.

The complaint states that two months prior to the closing, Moskovitz received a memo from Shepler on April 15, 2005 in which Shepler directed Moskovitz to hold off on the closing of sale of the Dreyer property.

Due to the judge's gag order, the News Transcript was not able to obtain a copy of that memo or any other requested communication between Moskovitz and any township official following the township's June 14 filing of the complaint against Moskovitz.