State
of CT Press Release: Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and
Department of Agriculture (DAG) Commissioner Bruce Gresczyk
today praised a recent Superior Court decision that threw
out a fraudulently filed will which would have allowed development
of a 127-acre farm in Eastford. The valid will donated the
farm’s development rights to DAG, thereby guaranteeing that
it would remain agricultural land. Blumenthal filed a lawsuit
to challenge the will on behalf of the Commissioner of Agriculture.
“This decision is a decisive victory in the fight to save
a precious, dwindling resource – Connecticut farmland,” Blumenthal
said. “Mamie Nahibowtiz wanted to preserve as farmland the
wonderful place where she spent most of her life. In 1993,
Mamie rewrote her will conveying the farm’s development rights
to the state of Connecticut – thus guaranteeing that her property’s
rural character would be preserved forever. Her nephew cruelly
and callously attempted to thwart his late aunt’s desires
by filing an invalid will. The court rightly rejected the
invalid document, restoring Mamie’s wishes and safeguarding
the survival of a small, but significant piece of the Connecticut’s
rural heritage.” “Preserving agricultural land is very important
to the State of Connecticut and I am very happy and pleased
with the support provided from the Attorney General and his
staff on this matter,” Greszcyk said. “Mamie Nahibowitz generously
sought to keep her land in agriculture after she was gone.
This decision fulfills her desire and leaves a lasting legacy
to her hometown and the State of Connecticut.” Mamie Nahibowitz,
who lived most of her life on the family farm at 96 Westford
Road, Eastford, drew up a will in 1973 leaving the property
to her nephew, Anton Faford of Norfolk, Mass., a niece and
other relatives. In 1993, she decided to save the farm from
development by revising her will to donate the development
rights to the state When Nahibowitz died in 1998, Faford,
the administrator of her estate, sought to thwart his late
aunt’s wishes by filing the old 1973 will with the Eastford
Probate Court. Superior Court Judge Emmet Cosgrove found that
Nahibowitz had fraudulently filed the 1973 will. Cosgrove
set aside the probate court decision to accept the 1973 will
and instructed the probate court to reopen the proceedings
using the new will that guaranteed the land would remain a
farm. DAG’s farmland preservation program has been preserving
farmland since 1978. In that 26-year period, 200 farms comprising
28,500 acres have been saved.
