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July
2006 
For the second year in a row, Chambers USA has selected Blish & Cavanagh LLP as one of the leading firms in Rhode Island in the area of General Commercial Litigation.
The 2005-2006 print edition of Chambers USA’s “Client’s Guide” to America’s leading lawyers for business refers to
Joe Cavanagh as “clearly a leading name and an excellent lawyer” and identifies
Karen Pelczarski as a lawyer praised by her peers.
Click here to read the information in the on-line version of the Chambers USA Client’s
Guide. Scott
Spear, together with Blish & Cavanagh’s new corporate associate,
Ragan Willis, and outside counsel, recently represented BZ Results, LLC,
a Rhode Island-based digital marketing company, in the sale of its major
assets to Automatic Data Processing, Inc., an international, publicly
traded corporation. The
multi-million dollar sale included BZ’s software licenses, trademarks
and other intellectual property, plus more than 600 client contracts.
The deal with ADP was a decisive achievement for BZ and marked a
culmination of efforts by Scott Spear, who served as general counsel to
the company from its inception in 1998 through the sale.
In providing a broad range of business law services to the
company, Scott helped grow BZ from a spirited start-up based in a raised
ranch in East Providence to a multi-million dollar, website development
and licensing company with national reach from its several offices along
the Eastern seaboard. BZ’s
three energetic founders did not rest on their laurels long. In addition
to serving as consultants to BZ under new ownership, each launched
multiple new business ventures, individually and as partners.
Scott Spear represents the founders and their new companies in
these endeavors.
Joe Cavanagh and Kristin Rodgers have been representing Anheuser-Busch
Inc. in the civil litigation arising from the tragic fire in February,
2003 at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island.
Karen Pelczarski was selected for inclusion in
the 2006 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, which was published in
December, 2005.
DECISIONS
AND OTHER MATTERS
On May 24, 2006, the
Rhode Island Supreme Court upheld a Superior Court decision that
approved the Smithfield Zoning Board’s grant of a variance allowing an
applicant to operate a landscaping business with certain restrictions.
The underlying case was decided on July 29, 2005 by Superior
Court Judge Netti Vogel and is reported as Ringland v. Smithfield
Zoning Board of Review, 2005 R.I. Super, LEXIS 118.
The landowner unsuccessfully challenged the conditions imposed by
the Zoning Board before the Superior Court.
Ed Alves represented the Zoning Board in the Superior Court and
Supreme Court proceedings.
Click
here to read the text of the Superior Court decision.
On April 13, 2006, Rhode Island Superior Court
reversed the Providence Licensing Board’s grant of a seasonal liquor
license to the Monet Lounge.
This
license had been granted without notice to abutters and was challenged
by the Providence Journal Company which owns property adjacent to the
liquor establishment.
This
decision has had statewide ramifications and has required some licensing
boards to revamp their hearing procedures.
Ed Alves represented the Providence Journal Company in the
Superior Court action.
See City
of Providence Bd. of Licenses v. Rhode Island Dept. of Business
Regulation, 2006 R.I. Super, LEXIS 37.
Click here to read the text of the Superior Court
decision.
On December 20, 2005, Judge Daniel Procaccini
ruled that the Town of Smithfield properly modified the health care
benefits of certain police retirees pursuant to an interest arbitration
award. The retirees had
argued that their benefits became frozen upon retirement.
The decision has been appealed to the Rhode Island Supreme Court
which will make the final decision on this issue of first impression in
Rhode Island. Ed Alves
represented the Town in the interest arbitration proceedings and before
the Superior Court and continues to represent the interests of the Town
before the Supreme Court. See
Anderson v. Town of Smithfield, 2005 R.I. Super. LEXIS
181. Click here to read the
text of the Superior Court decision.
In November, 2005, Karen Pelczarski successfully represented a defendant
in a Superior Court matter arising from transfers of stock in a family
corporation. The plaintiff
had alleged breach of fiduciary duty and undue influence in her
transfers of stock to the defendant.
Following a bench trial, Judge Vogel found for the defendant.
On November 10, 2005, the Rhode Island Supreme Court decided two cases
related to the development of low and moderate income housing through
the comprehensive permit process. In
West Reservoir, LLC v. Town of Smithfield Zoning Bd. of Review,
888 A.2d 977 (R.I. 2005), the Court determined that West Reservoir’s
development application was not substantially complete as of the date of
a Statewide Moratorium on the use of the comprehensive permit process.
As a result, the application for 420 residential units and
180,000 square feet of commercial space was dismissed.
In Cortellesso v. Town of Smithfield Zoning Bd. of Review,
888 A.2d 979 (R.I. 2005), the Court also dismissed a comprehensive
permit application seeking 60 residential units since the appellant
lacked standing to prosecute the appeal.
Ed Alves, in his capacity as Town Solicitor, represented the
Smithfield Zoning Board before the Supreme Court in both cases.
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