Justice for Jay: Community rallies behind York man evicted from home amid legal battle
YORK, Maine — “For shame” read the hand-drawn sign held outside Bangor Savings Bank, as a group of almost 100 people gathered to show support for their friend “Jay.”
Many other signs can now be found posted around town that read “Justice for Jay,” as friends of John “Jay” Lanni call for the trustees of Jay’s parents’ trusts to fulfill what they call a moral obligation — finding a place for Jay to live.
Jay, 60, who has schizophrenia, was evicted from his childhood home at 45 Organug Road in March after it was sold per a probate court order in a legal battle with the trustees, one of which was Bangor Savings Bank.
The sale was ordered after three years in court, where Joshua Gear, the trustee of Jay’s mother’s trust, fought the trustees of his father’s trust in an attempt to prevent them from selling the home. He argued it would be detrimental to Jay’s mental health, but the sale was ordered by a judge, who determined the trusts were running out of money. Jay was put up in a hotel by the Gears after his eviction, and most recently in a York Beach apartment, at no cost by a friend of the Gears.
Gear said Jay, as a beneficiary of the trusts, was not treated with proper care he believes is required by the trusts, pointing to his debilitating mental illness that is being exacerbated by his eviction from his childhood home.
“It’s not a matter of, did Bangor Savings Bank act illegally or steal money from Jay,” said Pat Bedard, an attorney representing the Gears in probate court. “We’re saying they didn’t act in his best interest. He has special needs.”
Isla Dickerson, a spokesperson for Bangor Savings Bank, said Monday the bank could not comment on specific clients in order to protect confidentiality, but she said the bank “takes the fiduciary duty owed to its customers seriously and approach it with respect and care.” She said trust situations are “complex,” and trustees consider many factors in upholding their obligation to beneficiaries.
“It is not uncommon in trust administration for there to be differences in opinion about what is representative of the best interest of a beneficiary,” Dickerson said.
Brendan Reilly, an attorney for Christine Kling, the second trustee overseeing Jay’s father’s trust, declined to comment this week.
Jay’s supporters say a second property previously owned by the Lannis at 49 Organug Road, now owned by the bank, could be kept for a home to be built where Jay could live. Gear said that lot is already under contract for sale, and the Justice for Jay movement’s current goal is to convince Bangor Savings Bank to reverse course.
Jay said in a written statement shared through the Gears he is hopeful the land can be kept from sale for him to build a home there. He said his parents had wanted him to live in his childhood home and that he was “doing fine” there.
“I am hoping to have an opportunity to be able to build a house on the adjacent lot (49 Organug Road) and have asked Josh and Jen Gear and others to do whatever they can to help me achieve that goal,” Jay said in the prepared statement. “I am doing well, but I’m looking forward to living in my own home.”
Jay’s story
Jay was originally from Kennebunkport before his parents moved to their York home in the early 1980s. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy, then graduated from Dartmouth College before going to work on Wall Street, Gear said.
“He had the world by the tail,” Josh Gear said.
The symptoms of schizophrenia set in around age 30, and Gear said Jay’s world crumbled. He was forced to return to his parents’ home in York in 1990.
Gear knew Jay as a teenager and became reacquainted with Jay when he and his wife Jennifer moved to Indian Trail Road around the corner from Jay’s home. They said they took the next several years getting to know Jay and his family, helping Jay socialize and regain some of his ability to function. They helped him get back to driving, owning a car, and playing a full round of golf.
“It was not overnight,” Jennifer said.
Jay’s parents died in 2016 and 2018, and their wishes for their assets, according to Jay and the Gears, was for Jay to live out his life on their property. The parents left separate trusts, Josh Gear becoming trustee of Ruth’s trust. The father’s trust had two trustees: Bangor Savings Bank and Jay’s cousin, Matt Nastasia.
A battle between trustees
Nastasia put the home on the market the year Jay’s father died.
Gear believed Jay needed a less abrupt transition due to his mental state and filed a petition December 2018 to have Nastasia removed as personal representative of the trust.
Nastasia’s attorney, Michael Traister, wrote in his reply to the petition the sale was necessary. He wrote both estates and the mother’s trust were essentially illiquid and unable to pay expenses and obligations, and “also because it is in the best interests of John B. Lanni (“Jay”).
Nastasia did not return a call seeking comment, but he and the Gears disagreed in court documents about the terms of the father’s trust.
Bedard, who represented Gear, wrote in the petition that Gear did not have a copy of Jay’s father’s trust but believed it was identical to the mother’s trust, which stated the remaining net estate would be held in trust for the benefit of Jay. Nastasia’s attorney wrote in his reply to the petition that Nastasia denied the trusts were identical and said the beneficiaries named in the trusts are different.
As the legal battle continued, court documents indicate money was spent from the trusts on growing legal fees, as well as mortgage and utility payments. Those payments eventually stopped, and in December 2021 judge Scott Houde ordered the home be put up for sale that month.
Houde wrote in his Dec. 8 interim order that more than 28 months had passed since discussion began for an alternative permanent living arrangement for Jay to minimize the trauma of the home’s sale.
“The parties never generated a viable alternative permanent living arrangement for Jay Lanni,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, he wrote that Lanni’s disability income of $2,000 a month, as well as monthly $500 payments from the trusts, could have gone towards paying those bills. He wrote there was no language in any Lanni trust that directs the trustee to retain ownership of 45 Organug Road.
“The undeniable fact remains that neither Jay Lanni nor the trusts are able to carry the cost of Jay Lanni remaining in the home,” the judge wrote. “Jay Lanni is not even attempting to pay the costs to live in the home. He has chosen to live there rent-free. This cannot be allowed to continue.”
'Justice For Jay' gains momentum
Gear maintains the trustees could have sought a better alternative to selling the home as early as 2018 rather than allowing legal fees to burn away the money that could have gone towards Jay’s new home. Jennifer Gear also said they had been helping him cover living costs and dispute the amount Jay receives in disability, saying the real amount is closer to $1,200. She said she has bank statements that show Jay was paying bills including for snowplowing, mowing, plumbing, yard irrigation, the newspaper, veterinarian bills, water and phone service.
The Gears said they have not wanted to publicize Jay’s situation despite him being known in town, but other neighbors soon became concerned for Jay as well. Peter Estes started a Facebook group called “Justice for Jay” to communicate with other neighbors about ways to help Jay. Within weeks, he was stunned to see the numbers grow to 700 members and have posts viewed by as many 7,000 users.
Estes said community members have formed tentative plans to help Jay into his new home if the bank will allow the property to stay with Jay. He said a local contractor has offered to build a turnkey house for under $300,000, and that many are willing to volunteer in furnishing Jay’s home.
“We hope there is quick action by the bank and the cousins,” Estes said. “If there isn’t, we’re absolutely not going away.”
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Justice for Jay: Community rallies behind York man evicted from home
