Lawsuit: Developer Had No Authorization To Build $1.5M Fairfield House

FAIRFIELD, CT — A Fairfield property owner has filed a lawsuit against a developer for building a home on his land without authorization.

According to the complaint, Dr. Daniel Kenigsberg, 70, a resident of East Setauket, NY, acquired title to the nearly-half-acre lot at 51 Sky Top Terrace in Fairfield in October 1991.

Kenigsberg told CT Insider that a friend alerted him of the home being built on his property, and the doctor confirmed it for himself on a visit in May. He found a 4,000 square foot, 5-bathroom home under construction on the lot, where just a few months before there were decades worth of wild growth.

"I was living my life normally until May 31st," Kenigsberg told the Washington Post, "and all of a sudden, this happened."

According to the complaint, Kenigsberg had no desire to develop or sell the property. Instead, he intended to pass it along to his heirs in its "unimproved condition." The 0.45 acre lot had remained undeveloped after the doctor's's parents Nathaniel and Esther bought an acre 70 years ago, but used only half of it to build their home.

Without his knowledge, Kenigsberg’s property appeared for sale online in August 2022. He told the Washington Post that someone had made a fake passport in his name, with an incorrect birthday, photo and address.

The federal lawsuit claims that a Daniel Kenigsberg, of South Africa, sold the property to the Fairfield firm 51 Sky Top Partners LLC, a Connecticut company that buys and holds real estate, in September for $350,000. The South African Kenigsberg granted power-of-attorney ("obviously forged," according to the lawsuit) to Trumbull lawyer Anthony Monelli. Both 51 Sky Top Partners and Monelli are named as defendants in the suit, which argues both "knew or should have known" that a fraud was taking place. .

The title transfer paperwork indicates Kenigsberg signed off on the move in Johannesburg, South Africa; the lawsuit argues he was impersonated, and his signature forged.

"Dr. Kenigsberg has never lived in Johannesburg, South Africa and was not traveling there in 2022," according to the lawsuit. "Dr. Kenigsburg never authorized the sale of his property to anyone."

Kenigsberg filed the suit against Monelli and 51 Sky Top Partners on July 14 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut

"We, as buyer, had no contact with the party impersonating Kenigsberg," 51 Sky Top owner Gina Leto said in a statement. "We had no reason to believe he was an impostor. We would not have paid $350,000 for the property — nor would we have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars more in construction — if we had."

The new construction, MLS #170558591, was placed on the market for $1,473,800, but those listings have since been pulled. Construction ceased on the property shortly after Kenigsberg informed 51 Sky Top that the company had not purchased the property from the proper owner.

A virtual tour of the home is still available online, but it's not certain the real house will be around much longer. In addition to various damages and attorney's fees, the lawsuit calls for "Temporary and permanent injunctive relief ordering the Defendants to remove any structures and/or materials from the Property and restore the Property to the condition that it was in prior to Defendants’ trespass upon it."