Frank M. Flowers & Sons has filed a suit against the Town of Oyster Bay with major implications for a family-run shellfish farm that has harvested in the area for over 130 years.
Alfred Amato,, a principal at Amato Law Group, which is representing Frank M. Flowers & Sons. said in court documents that the town has breached a 30-year lease or 1,800 acres of underwater town plans by failing to negotiate an extension with Flowers in good faith and preventing Flowers access to 300 acres of the land,
The town, Amato said, also failed to cooperate with annual Department of Environmental Conservation permitting guidelines and sending Flowers inaccurate charges.
The lease currently allows Flowers & Sons exclusive access to the land and shellfish on the grounds, but it expires on Monday, Sept. 30.
The litigation between the two sides is pending in New York State Supreme Court.
The town board proposed a short-term moratorium on the land once the lease expires. This ban would last three to six months, during which the town intends to conduct lead sediment tests and environmental tests.
Amato said that Flowers & Sons’ harvesting methods are compliant with state and federal regulations.
Town Code says that “leases may be renewed within six years prior to their expiration upon such terms and conditions as may be imposed by the Town Board after public hearing.”
Amato said in documents that from 2018, time Flowers & Sons contacted the town to discuss renewal plans and were continuously told “not to worry” and that “the Town will renew the Lease.”
Amato said that in 2020, the town issued a Request for Proposal that would allow the public to bid to lease 700 acres of underwater land for a five-year period. Flowers & Sons had continued attempts to renew its lease, which entitled it to 1,800 acres for a 30-year period, but it was rejected in November 2020.
Amato said this rejection was “without any legitimate basis” and was based on “self-serving, pre-textual and fabricated deficiencies” in documents submitted to the Nassau County Clerk.
Town officials said the company is responsible for the contract not moving forward.
“For four years, the company failed to provide a minimum of one million hatchery-produced clams annually, thereby depleting the harbor of crucially important shellfish which provide the necessary water filtration to prevent pollution,” said Brian Nevin, public information officer for the town.
Nevin said that this is why the proposed renewal was rejected.
Amato said Flowers & Sons has the right to the shellfish in the leased area.
“The town code itself, under section 196-22, explicitly states that the shellfish in the leased area belongs to Flower,” Amato said at the town’s public hearing on Tuesday, Aug. 13.
Town code section 196-22 says: “No person shall take shellfish from leased underwater shellfish lands except the lessee and his employees or persons with written permission of the lessee.”
Section 196-23 says, “The lessee shall have the sole right to all shellfish on the lessee’s leased underwater lands.”
At the public hearing, independent baymen disagreed that Flowers & Sons have the right to the existing shellfish population.
“The lease does not give Flowers any rights to underwater lands after Sept. 30, 2024,” said Robert Wemyss, secretary of the North Oyster Bay Baymen’s Association.
The town said that once the lease expires, Flowers & Sons is no longer the leasee of the land.
“Nothing in the lease or Town Code would allow them to continue harvesting oysters beyond the lease period as they would no longer be the leasee,” Nevin said.
The record on the proposed moratorium will remain open for 30 days following the Aug. 13 board meeting, which is standard practice following a public hearing. There have been no updates regarding the pending litigation.
