Dear Marion,

Thank you for your thoughtful letter. I took your advice.
The hearing appears to have been a smashing success.
It's behind me and suddenly I feel very tired.
The last time around, the appeals court took nine months
to issue its opinion. I mustn't be overly optimistic; the
decision may turn out to be much less spirited than the 
hearing. I won't count any chickens before they're hatched,
but I would be remiss not to tell you that the hearing
appears to have been a triumphal event. With my briefs:
http://home.earthlink.net/~ej2meyer/litigation/brief01
http://home.earthlink.net/~ej2meyer/litigation/replybrief01.pr
I seem to have persuaded the appeals court that I am in
league with the angels and that Mr. Ciarmataro is one of the
ones whom the Almighty tossed down from the heavens. The
judges were very friendly to me; they were harshly critical 
of Mr. Pucci for having permitted an inspection which
they considered devoid of integrity, specifically because 
Mr. Ciarmataro had denied Mr. Gordon the opportunity to make
the installation code-compliant before it was inspected.
They were also very critical of Mr. Ciamataro's for having
skipped both scheduled plumbing board hearings. What the 
appeals court might have in store for me is impossible to 
divine; but this afternoon it seems most unlikely that they 
will order the plumbing to be destroyed.

Tomorrow morning I must start reviewing financial accounts
and starting preliminary work on the tax returns, tasks
that I had been postponing while trying to prepare myself
for the hearing. Also, one of the Nantucket surveillance 
videos shows what appeals to be a patch of water behind the
patio door that leads to the outside stairs. On the first warm
and dry day, I should go over to find out what is going on.

I hope that you and Ned are well.

Jochen