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Tuesday hearing aims to settle 2-year-old lawsuit

Former tenant seeks to retain ownership of left-behind machinery

By Dean Shalhoup - Senior Staff Writer | Jan 8, 2019

FILE PHOTO One of the buildings at the center of the city's lawsuit against a former tenant is part of Nashua's historic millyard district.

NASHUA – A Superior Court judge has given the former tenant of the old Nimco and Ultima Nashua properties one more chance to argue a motion to continue the proceedings in the lawsuit the city filed seeking to assume ownership of the heavy machinery he left behind two years ago.

City legal counsel and the defendant, Dr. Anoosh Irvan Kiamanesh, owner of a now-defunct machine research and development firm, are scheduled for an 8:45 a.m. hearing this morning in Hillsborough County Superior Court South.

Kiamanish must be present, according to the judge’s order, otherwise the judge will grant the city’s motion for final judgement – meaning the city would win the suit by default.

Kiamanesh sold the Millyard property to the city about 15 years ago for $1.2 million, but remained as a tenant.

Meanwhile, the city has sought for more than two years a court order to compel Kiamanesh, who also goes by “Dr. Kia,” to remove the machinery and other items from the buildings so the city can move ahead with its plans to redevelop the area.

The city initially acquired the parcels to make way for the construction of what was originally planned as a four-lane Broad Street Parkway. But when the project was scaled back to a two-lane parkway, the land wasn’t needed.

Court documents show Kiamanesh has a history of failing to respond to correspondence from the city and the court, which prompted the court to enter a default order for “failure to file timely appearance and answer,” according to the documents.

The suit, filed in late 2016, names Kiamanesh personally, and his businesses, Ultima Nashua Industrial Corp. and Nimco Real Estate Associates as corporate defendants.

Intially, it also named John Erickson and a business called “Grow America Products Inc. as defendants, but in May, the city, noting that Erickson removed all his personal property from the site, agreed to drop him and the company from the suit.

According to the case file, the city, in April 2016, brought “a landlord-tenant proceeding” – a notice of eviction – against the men and their respective companies.

Eight months later, according to the suit, Kiamanesh had allegedly still not made any effort to remove the property, which is described as “several large machines, old office equipment, several vehicles and a multitude of industrial tools.”

The city in the meantime brought a damages suit against the defendants, seeking back taxes and fees due under the leasing agreement. The court in April 2017 entered judgement in favor of the city, awarding $98,000 plus interest and costs, bringing the total to just over $100,000.

The city, which has yet to receive the award, pursued a so-called “sheriff’s sale” to satisfy at least some of the costs, Deputy City Corporation Counsel Celia Leonard said.

But representatives of the Sheriff’s office, after concluding they “could not effectively show ownership … “of the property, declined to conduct a sale, according to the suit.

Leonard, meanwhile, said that Kiamanesh, in order to convince the judge to strike the default judgement at this morning’s hearing, must show that his alleged failures to appear at previous hearings and respond to correspondence was due to something other than neglect or purposeful malfeasance.

In August, Kiamanesh told The Telegraph he had investors ready to build what he called a “Nashua Institute of Technology” on the Millyard property.

The city, he said at the time, was being “short-sighted” by pursuing court action rather than allowing him to go forward with his project.

“They are playing a legal game at the cost of not having this in the city,” Kiamanesh said.

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-1256, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DeanS.

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