By Larry Barszewski
Ocean Ridge town commissioners have given up their battle against the former owner of a dilapidated Coconut Lane home who racked up code enforcement fines topping $100,000.
Instead of approving a settlement in December 2024 that extracted at least some payment for the fines that began accruing two years earlier, as the town’s legal counsel had advised, commissioners continued their fight for more than a year and a half longer.
That fight came to an end on Sept. 14, when commissioners not only voted to make the case go away, but agreed that the town would be the one doing the paying. The commission took that action because there was a chance the town might have to pay even more if commissioners didn’t settle.
James Cooksey’s former property — now on the market and fixed up by a new owner with an asking price of almost $7 million — had been an eyesore at the end of Coconut Lane for several years. Cooksey, who has invested in real estate, purchased it in 2005.
In 2023, after a lien was placed on the 23 Coconut Lane property, Cooksey sued the town, saying he had not been properly noticed of the fines or the November 2022 hearing before a special magistrate where the $150-a-day fine was imposed. A judge dismissed the case, but Cooksey appealed.
It was before the appeal was decided that commissioners had an opportunity to settle the case if they would let Cooksey pay only $30,000 of the $117,000 in fines attached to the property near the end of 2024. They turned it down.
At the time, Cooksey told the commissioners he had a good case: “We can litigate the thing for two more years, I don’t care if that’s what you guys want to do. Pay people $500 an hour rather than resolving it.”
And things started to go Cooksey’s way. The appeal court reversed the dismissal and allowed Cooksey to file a new complaint. Cooksey actually paid off about $125,000 in fines and other fees to clear the title and sold the property for $2 million while still challenging the fines in court.
In September, the commission voted to pay Cooksey $172,500, or $47,500 more than Cooksey had paid to clear the property’s title. The settlement was approved without discussion as part of a larger consent agenda.
Part of the reason commissioners agreed to settle was that the judge in the case had ordered arbitration, and the arbitrator was recommending the town pay more than $207,000 to Cooksey, according to a staff report.
While the commission voted to settle the case, Vice Mayor Steve Coz wasn’t convinced Cooksey hadn’t seen the notices, which he said included a red notice of violation posted on the house by police.
“He claimed he didn’t see it,” Coz said after the commission’s Sept. 14 meeting. “You have to get a picture of him being handed the notice.”
Cooksey did not respond to an email and a phone call from The Coastal Star seeking comments about the settlement.
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