Lawsuits accuse Woodbridge municipal judge of fraud, conflict

23 February 2001
The Star-Ledger
 

A municipal court judge in Middlesex County is the subject of two lawsuits alleging fraud and conflict of interest in his representation of clients during a series of real estate deals and investments.

Emery Z. Toth, an attorney and Woodbridge municipal court judge, is accused of defrauding developer Robert Bengivenga of $450,000 in a business partnership that Bengivenga entered with real estate broker Carol Gronczewski. Toth was hired as the attorney to represent the partnership, which was formed in 1988, according to court papers filed in Superior Court in Somerset County.

Gronczewski and Toth also are named in a separate case to be tried next week in Hunterdon County. In that case, plaintiff Barbra Gulisano of Califon alleges that Gronczewski and Toth deliberately concealed their romantic relationship, even though Toth was representing both women in a business partnership.

As a result of that relationship, the complaint alleges that Gulisano's business interests were not properly represented in a series of real estate deals that the women made between 1988 and 1994. Gulisano is suing for $800,000 she says is owed to her from years of investments.

Toth was severed from the Hunterdon County case and will be tried separately.

Calls to his Woodbridge law office yesterday were not returned. Toth is an associate judge in Edison and occasionally fills in in Perth Amboy. In the past, he presided over Old Bridge's municipal court.

According to court documents filed in Hunterdon County, Gulisano and Gronczewski were close friends dating back to 1978 when Gronczewski, a real estate agent, helped the Gulisano family purchase a home in Metuchen. In 1988, the two women formed a business partnership called BG Enterprises and purchased property in South Plainfield. Gulisano invested $200,000 -money she had inherited from her father -in the partnership.

They hired Toth as their attorney. Over the next six years, documents show, Gulisano, a housewife, spent money to buy property in Edison and to invest in a fishing resort in Florida. By 1990, Gulisano had invested $617,000.

During this time, Toth should have advised Gulisano to hire her own attorney, court papers say, because he had developed an intimate relationship with Gronczewski.

Gulisano alleges that her former business partner failed to fully disclose accurate financial accounts of their investments and their sales. She charges that she did not receive her fair proceeds from the sale of the resort. In March 1997, they terminated their business partnership.

Donald B. Fraser, attorney for Gronczewski, denied the allegations.

"My client's position is that all the transactions were completely above board," Fraser said.

Gronczewski has countersued for about $150,000 she says Gulisano owes her.

In the Somerset County lawsuit, Bengivenga and Gronczewski formed a real estate partnership in 1988 that Toth represented, according to court papers. In 1993, Bengivenga invested $450,000 in property in Matecumbe, Fla., with the promise that he would receive $500,000. The original lawsuit, filed in 1997, said he never received the money.

The suit charges that Toth negligently prepared agreements, advised Bengivenga and failed to properly protect him in various business deals.

Copyright© 2009 by Citizens for Legal Responsibility®.
                        All rights reserved.

               Home