Oyster Bay and former landlord of once-shuttered restaurant reach settlement 

The former landlords of the once-shuttered Cafe Al Dente restaurant and the Town of Oyster Bay have settled a lawsuit following a two-day bench trial in federal court last week, court records show.

The former owners of 2 Spring St., a two-story building across the street from Oyster Bay town government buildings, agreed to accept $282,000 to settle claims that they had been denied their constitutional right to due process when the town padlocked their tenant, the restaurant, in 2013. The suit said the 18-month closure resulted in damage to their building and property value, lost rents and legal fees.

U.S. District Judge Gary Brown in U.S. Eastern District Court in Central Islip gave the parties 90 days to finalize the settlement, which must be approved by the town board.

The former owners, Sandra Leung and Hsiao Chun Wu, had sought $6 million in damages from the town and individual defendants, including deceased former planning commissioner Frederick Ippolito, in the suit filed in 2016.

They alleged that town officials had given them limited access to their building during the closure resulting in pipes freezing and bursting. They sold the building in 2015 but alleged that the town’s designation of it as "dangerous" had depressed its market value from $1.2 million to $740,000.

Leung’s attorney, Andrew Campanelli of Merrick-based Campanelli & Associates P.C., said the settlement was a victory for his client who will receive "reasonable compensation for the damages she sustained."

"This type of abuse should never happen," Campanelli said. "Code enforcers can apply the code but they must respect people’s property rights."

Campanelli said despite declaring the building to be dangerous, the town had allowed the residential apartment above the cafe to be occupied.

Once Cafe Al Dente had vacated the building, the town gave his clients full access but it was already damaged by then, he said.

Town spokesman Brian Nevin said in a statement Monday that Ippolito had been to blame.

"It’s no secret that the prior and deceased Building Commissioner had serious faults, and this settlement recognizes his failure to provide a dangerous building hearing as required by Town Code," Nevin wrote in an email.

Nevin wrote that the two living code inspectors named in the case, Joseph Ciambra and Joseph Cangro, had done their jobs properly and "served summons based on blatant violations" at Cafe Al Dente.

The owner of Cafe Al Dente, Philip Morizio, won a jury trial against the town in 2016 on due process grounds. A judge overturned a jury award of $1.3 million as excessive and Morizio and the town separately settled for $400,000 and the code violations were dropped.

Cafe Al Dente reopened at a different location several years later and a new restaurant opened at 2 Spring St.