BOSTON (AP) – A New Hampshire man whose expensive jewelry disappeared while he was awaiting trial said he’s “devastated” that the state Appeals Court refused to hold Massachusetts financially responsible.

Stephen Vining of Atkinson, N.H., who claims a diamond cluster ring handed down by his late father was worth $211,000, plans to appeal, but said Thursday he may not live long enough because of advanced bladder cancer, emphysema and diabetes.

“For my kids, I have to,” Vining said of an appeal to the Supreme Judicial Court. “I thought I’d get the judgment and make a nice little nest egg for my kids, take care of their college for them.”

The Appeals Court on Wednesday rejected Vining’s claim that Massachusetts should pay for items lost while he was in custody in 1998. The 50-year-old claims his two rings and watch were worth a total $230,000.

Vining, whose family operated a successful trash hauling business, was acquitted of violating a restraining order stemming from a 1998 arrest by Somerville police. He was held without bail for four months at the Middlesex Jail in Cambridge.

“Somewhere between the Somerville District Court and the Cambridge jail this jewelry just disappeared,” said Vining’s attorney, Joseph J. Balliro Jr. “It’s difficult to believe they were just lost. These were not small items.”

Less valuable items placed in the same inventory envelope were still there when Vining was released, Balliro said.

Balliro said the diamond cluster ring was valued at $211,000 by an appraiser who testified.

It was not insured, he added.

A Superior Court judge dismissed the case against the state, arguing that Massachusetts has “sovereign immunity” in such instances. A three-judge Appeals Court panel unanimously upheld the dismissal Wednesday.

Vining’s ex-wife had taken out the restraining order. He was arrested when they arrived at the same location to sign divorce papers, he said. He was held without bail, he said, because he had served two years in jail on an earlier restraining order violation, for visiting his children at their school.

Balliro and Vining claim authorities never investigated the missing items.

“I got no response,” Balliro said of his request for an investigation by Attorney General Tom Reilly, whose office had no immediate comment.

The Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office, which guards inmates and detainees at Middlesex courts and jails, did not return a call to comment. A Somerville police spokesman also did not return a call.

Somerville also was sued as part of Vining’s 2000 civil suit, but the city won dismissal in 2003.

Vining grew up in Medford.