‘You can't fight city hall' or can you? Danbury business win in decade-long lawsuit with city upheld
A Danbury business owner could receive up to $20 million after Connecticut’s appellate court rejected the City of Danbury’s appeal in a long-running lawsuit over a building inspection.
NBC Connecticut Investigates spoke exclusively with John Girolametti, owner of Party Depot on State Street, whose family-owned business has been locked in a legal battle with the city for well over a decade.
Girolametti said the dispute centers on a 30,000-square-foot addition to his business that was built and inspected around 2008. Despite being approved at the time, the space has never been used.
Standing inside the addition, Girolametti pointed out visible cracks in the concrete floors, which he said should have failed inspection.
“Major building code violations were clear to the inspectors, and they were failed at the time of the inspections,” Girolametti said. “But later they were passed with no corrective measures being made.”
According to Girolametti, one of the most serious problems was inadequate structural support, raising concerns that the second-floor concrete slabs could collapse.
“There would have been a failure in our building,” he said. “The situation could have caused serious injuries or possible death.”
Because of those safety concerns, the addition has remained unusable — even as taxes and insurance on the space continued to pile up.
Girolametti and his family sued the City of Danbury, seeking millions of dollars in damages related to:
- The cost of the unusable addition
- The cost to replace it
- Lost business revenue
- Ongoing taxes and insurance
- Significant legal fees
“It is very hard to fight City Hall,” Girolametti said.
In 2023, a jury ruled in Girolametti’s favor, awarding nearly $17 million — a figure that could approach $20 million with interest.
The city appealed that verdict, but earlier this week, a three-judge appellate panel rejected Danbury’s appeal, allowing the jury award to stand.
Danbury officials said they plan to ask the Connecticut Supreme Court to review the case. In a statement, the city argued the appellate court’s ruling could expose municipalities to liability for the reckless actions of individual employees, despite laws intended to protect cities from such claims.
Here is the full statement from the City of Danbury:
“The City asked the Appellate Court to apply the protections of long-standing immunity statutes, but the court found that the City could be liable for the reckless act of a single employee, when many other statutes protect cities from liability for individual employees’ reckless acts. We find that this sets a dangerous precedent for Connecticut municipalities, which has far-reaching effects beyond building code inspections. The City’s position is that the court was required to interpret the statutes narrowly when considering whether a municipality can be made to pay damages.
At a ten percent interest rate, the City stands not only to bear the approximate $16 million judgment, but some $1.6 million a year in interest. The City will be asking the Connecticut Supreme Court to review and overturn this. We are not only considering our own interests, as we believe this decision is untenable for any City and a threat to any small town.”
Girolametti says he hopes the legal fight will finally come to an end.
“I’m sure that the city wants to keep fighting this,” he said, “but I really wish that they would put an end to it.”
While the city can petition the state Supreme Court, that court is not required to take the case.
NBC Connecticut Investigates will continue tracking the case and report on what happens next.
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