A federal judge shot down Cantor Fitzgerald boss Howard Lutnick’s $36 million legal battle against a pair of Hamptons municipal boards and their members over his bi🦋d to buiꦚld a full-size basketball court on his Bridgehampton spread, according to court papers filed Tuesday.
The finance honcho had argued that the terms of his $15 million purchase of the mansion in 2003 allowed him to engage in “compatible recreational uses” on the site and that his rights were being violated.
But Southampton officials countered that no-look passes and bank shots were not “compatible” with the agriculturally protected area and ejected Lutnick’s application.
In a Long Island federal court decision filed Tuesday, Judge Arthur Spatt ruled that the board was within its rights to issue the🌺ir determination and tossed the case.
Spatt argued that Lutnick’s suit failed to demonstrate that their decision was “conscience-shocking” and “arbitrary.”
The jurist also rejected the financier’s bid to file an amended complaint to revive the case against the East End officials.
“The Court declines to afford the plaintiff a proverbial second bite at the apple,” Spatt wrote. “The plaintiff filed a lengthy and detailed complaint, containing 69 paragraphs of factual allegations.”
Lutnick’s suit made waves because it took the unusual step of naming individual board members in addition to the boards themselves.
The maneuver wa🍨s interpreted by some as an attempt by Lutnick to frigh𓃲ten his adversaries by name and to force their hand.
While defeated on the hoops front, Lutnick still has a pending $80 million case against a slew of Southampton boards and individuals for de꧅manding that he get rid of a baseball field, a hedge and a jungle gym on the property if he wanted approval for a new barn.