Man Who Bought Cape Cod Home on Edge of Cliff Seeks Release from Mortgage

A retired New York lawyer who bought a $5.5 million Cape Cod mansion that was teetering on the verge of falling into the ocean claims he shouldn’t have to pay off his mortgage because he was “manic” when he bought it.

John G. Bonomi Jr, 66, purchased the 5,817-square-foot dwelling situated between Cape Cod Bay and Wellfleet Harbor in November 2021 for the asking price of $5.5 million, despite the bluff eroding at a rate of 3.8 to 5.6 feet per year.

The home, which has since been demolished to prevent the collapse, was built in 2010 and featured five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and gorgeous sunset and water views.

Bonomi currently owes $3,850,000 on his mortgage and is suing JPMorgan Chase to void the payment through the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Ethan Leib, a professor of law at Fordham Law School, told the Boston Globe in a recent article about the case that Bonomi faces a “difficult burden of proof,” and questions how a mortgage lender could be expected to know that he was in a manic phase at the time of the purchase.

Bonomi, who was diagnosed with Bipolar I Disorder in 2009, is claiming that the bank shouldn’t have lent him the money because “no rational person…would have considered purchasing the Property, and certainly not at the full asking price,” the filing states. 

While this claim may sound far fetched, New York State does have a legal precedent that allows mental health conditions to be a basis for invalidating a contract.

Bonomi is seeking a jury trial, as well as to void the mortgage and note for $3.85 million with interest, damages, and attorney’s fees.

“Plaintiff was acting under an uncontrollable manic psychosis at the time he entered into the Mortgage and Note,” the suit, filed in October 2025, reads. “It is a recognized diagnostic fact that a symptom of bipolar disorder is irrational risk-taking and impulsive behavior, including reckless spending.”

Bonomi alleges that the bank “was aware, or willfully avoided acknowledging, that Plaintiff was not at that time competent to enter into the Mortgage and Note.”

He further stated that they took an “unconscionable advantage of his condition” and should not have lent him the money.  

At that time, the bank gifted Bonomi a $3,850,000 loan, according to the suit. Bonomi made monthly payments of $21,053 from November 2021 until September 2024.

In May, JPMorgan Chase denied the allegations after initially seeking to have the suit dismissed.  

Bonomi has also claimed that the prior Chase lending officer, Kimon Psihudakis, who hasn’t worked at the bank since July 2024, purposefully ignored a letter from Bonomi’s employer stating that he would be retiring in May 2022.

The complaint states that Psihudakis told Bonomi he was doing this because “Chase won’t provide a mortgage to anyone within three years of retirement,” the complaint said.

Bonomi’s legal filing contains a link to the three-minute “seductive” marketing video of the property that had further enticed him to purchase.

The town of Wellfleet assessed the mansion’s value at over $4.83 million in 2021, and it was built by a couple, Mark and Barbara Blasch, despite it being opposed by the National Park Service.

Known as the “Blasch house,” the property has fostered resentment in the surrounding communities and a celebrity-like status in the media.  

“The whole thing has been preposterous from the start,” Corinne Demas, a Wellfleet professor, told the Boston Globe. “You take some people with enormous ego and vast amounts of money who say, ‘I’m going to build a house where no one thinks a house should be built.’”

Since it was first built, the Blasch house has appeared on various news sites. From its appearances in the Wicked Local to the Provincetown Independent, the headlines only boosted when Bonomi made the purchase in 2021.

Provincetown Independent covered Bonomi’s attempts to sell the home for a million less than he paid, as well as his hopes to blame the property’s instability on the town refusing to let him build a stone revetment.

But finally, in February 2025, it was announced that the mansion at 1440 Chequessett Neck Road would be demolished to “prevent it from collapsing into the ocean.”

The demolition, which was completed in March 2025, allegedly cost Bonomi $250,000.

Experts have claimed that there is “no question” that a person with bipolar disorder and experiencing mania could spend such a generous sum of money.  

“It’s complicated,” Annie Harper, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale University, told the Boston Globe. “For me, the bigger question is, how do we set up a system that can minimize the depth of the financial catastrophe that can be caused in this situation?”

The land where the mansion once stood was re-assessed by the town of Wellfleet in January 2025 at a value of $385,000.