Breach of contract claims can be levied against all kinds of people, including politicians.
Three people are accusing a former New Jersey mayor of breach of contract. They argue former Hoboken mayor Peter Cammarano failed to pay them back $70,000 in loans and services for his 2009 election campaign.
A supermarket owner, a city employee and the former mayor’s campaign field director filed the complaint in superior court last week. The claims made against him include a desire for restitution and penalties. The City of Hoboken is also a defendant in the breach of contract suit because Cammarano used his authority of public office to intimidate the claimants, the suit states.
In the lawsuit, the supermarket owner says Cammarano intimidated him into cashing $35,000 in campaign donation checks. He further alleges that the checks all bounced due to insufficient funds. The city employee alleges Cammarano asked her to loan his campaign $20,000 and that he promised to pay her back, but he only repaid her $4,000. The campaign field director claims that Cammarano asked him to pay campaign workers from the field director’s private business account, which caused that business to go bankrupt.
Cammarano was arrested and hauled away on corruption charges before he could repay thousands in return check fees that his field director incurred while acting on his behalf.
Cammarano was arrested in an unrelated 2009 corruption sting. He pleaded guilty to accepting $25,000 in bribes.
Cammarano is still paying his debt to society for the crimes he pleaded guilty to; he is scheduled to be released from prison in the spring. The former mayor will now have to deal with the breach of contract claims made against him. The plaintiffs deserve a fair and thorough investigation into their complaints. If the facts alleged in the lawsuit are proven to be true, then the three plaintiffs are entitled to the full restitution allowed under the law.
Source: The Jersey Journal, “Former Hoboken Mayor Cammarano breached contracts during campaign by not repaying $70000- suit says,” Summer Dawn Hortillosa, Dec. 6, 2011
