Hamptons Hedge Update

Marc Spilker, the Goldman Sachs partner at war with his East Hampton neighbor Jim Chanos over a path to the beach, has tried for more than a year to find a peaceful resolution to the impasse, his lawyer says.

Christopher Kelley, a partner at Twomey, Latha, Shea, Kelley, Dubin & Quartararo in Riverhead, New York, says Spilker has made "repeated attempts" to discuss his desire to widen the path. But Chanos "has been unwilling to rationally discuss the situation," Kelley adds.

Kelley said that Chanos, who runs the short-selling hedge fund Kynikos Associates, is obligated under terms of his deed, to provide a 15-foot-wide easement to the ocean--and he provides a copy of Chanos' deed to back up his assertion.

All that his client wants, Kelley adds, is to widen the current path--now about three-and-a-half feet wide, and "encroached upon by Mr. Chanos's landscaping and driveway"--to only six or seven feet wide. Far less than the 15 feet called for in the deed, he notes.

How that gives him the right to hire earthmovers to rip out Chanos's path-side hedge is unclear. But what Kelley does make clear is that Spilker "is saddened by the fact that Mr. Chanos has decided to blow a small personal dispute into a media circus."

by Deborah Schoeneman

Condé Nast Portfolio contributor Deborah Schoeneman, who is also editor in chief of Hampton Style, reports on executives in the Hamptons.