John Noffo Khan, a Palm Beach philanthropist, said he had no idea that he was the lead plaintiff in the Superior Court lawsuit against the Preservation Society’s plan to construct a welcome center at The Breakers.
Kahn told the Newport Daily News that he only granted use of his name as an abutter and never agreed to serve as chief plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by the Bellevue Ochre Point Neighborhood Association (also known as some of the chief nimby’ers and opponents of any change in the City of Newport).
“I wish to go on record as stating that I am not now, nor never have been, to my knowledge, an appellant in any Superior Court action regarding the special-use permit granted to the Preservation Society for the welcome center at The Breakers, since the special-use permit was issued. . .I have had no correspondence whatsoever with the appellants and/or their counsel.” Khan wrote in an email to the involved parties.
When the Newport Daily News reached out to the nimby’ers attorney Dan Prentiss he said, “I can’t comment because of the attorney-client relationship.” Khan then fired back, “He’s not commenting because he doesn’t want to get sued by me. He is not my attorney in this matter. I never received a bill from him and did not pay him anything. He asked to use my name as an abutter before the zoning board because he needed someone with standing as an opponent. He never got my permission to put my name on a lawsuit. This is a huge embarrassment to him.”
This isn’t the first time opponents of the Preservation Society have been caught with their pants down. Remember last spring when Preservation Society Chairman Donald Ross ripped the Vanderbilt family’s letter to shreds point by point to dismiss the factual inaccuracies?
Ah, wealthy Newport…You’re the best Soap Opera going!
