Construction Zoning
June 30, 2020 / June 30, 2020 by Michelle O'Brien | Leave a Comment
In a striking blow, stripping a city of a judgment of nearly $1 million, the Massachusetts Appeals Court recently reversed a superior court summary judgment awarding fines to the City of Haverhill for a developer’s violations of zoning laws. The city assessed the fines against the developer under the state building code and the local […]
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Mortgages
June 23, 2020 by Joel Quick | Leave a Comment
The Massachusetts Appeals Court decided last week that a mortgage stating it is payable “on demand,” with no maturity date or term, is governed by the so-called obsolete mortgage statute, M.G.L. c. 260, § 33. The case is Thornton v. Thornton and a link to the decision is here. The obsolete mortgage statute is designed to […]
Environmental
June 10, 2020 by Daniel Bailey | Leave a Comment
On June 3, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit vacated an air permit issued by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and remanded the matter to the agency for further analysis. The case is Town of Weymouth v. Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. The First Circuit’s decision is linked here. […]
Real Estate
May 22, 2020 by Donald R. Pinto, Jr. | Leave a Comment
In its decision last week in DeCicco v. 180 Grant Street, LLC, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) answered a previously open question, confirming that a defendant who successfully moves to dismiss a complaint in which the plaintiff obtained a lis pendens is entitled to recover not only its trial court attorneys’ fees but also […]
Construction Real Estate
May 6, 2020 by Donald R. Pinto, Jr. | Leave a Comment
Late yesterday Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s office announced a new protocol for re-starting city construction projects deemed “essential.” In mid-March, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Walsh ordered most construction in the city to cease. Since April 27, 2020, all projects involving essential construction have been required to file with the city a COVID-19 Safety […]
SLAPP Suits Zoning
April 27, 2020 by Nicholas Brown | Leave a Comment
A decision late last year from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), 477 Harrison Ave., LLC v. JACE Boston, LLC (pdf), gives real estate developers a surprising new weapon when confronted by litigious neighbors. The dispute began in 2012, when the plaintiff developer obtained zoning relief to redevelop a residential property in Boston’s South End. […]
Zoning
March 9, 2020 / March 11, 2020 by Donald R. Pinto, Jr. | Leave a Comment
In what passes for high drama in the world of Massachusetts land use law, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), after hearing oral argument last Thursday in an important case involving standing in zoning appeals, entered an order the next day reversing the Appeals Court decision under review and reinstating the trial court’s decision dismissing the […]
Adverse Possession Eminent Domain Prescriptive Easement
February 24, 2020 by Donald R. Pinto, Jr. | Leave a Comment
In a rescript opinion issued this morning in Gentili v. Town of Sturbridge (pdf), the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruled that a municipality’s acquisition of a prescriptive easement over private property is not an eminent domain taking. In prior proceedings in Gentili, the Land Court ruled that the defendant town had acquired a prescriptive easement […]
February 7, 2020 by Michelle O'Brien | Leave a Comment
In one of its noteworthy zoning decisions of late 2019, the Massachusetts Appeals Court interpreted the “two-year bar” for zoning amendments contained in M.G.L. c. 40A, § 5, sixth par. In Penn v. Town of Barnstable, the Appeals Court affirmed a summary judgment entered by the Land Court and concluded that the Town of Barnstable’s […]
Adverse Possession Prescriptive Easement Real Estate
December 23, 2019 by Joel Quick | Leave a Comment
In the second half of this year the Massachusetts Appeals Court decided three cases in which a party claimed adverse possession or prescriptive rights in real estate. In each case the focus was on one particular element of all such claims: actual use of the subject property. And in each case the Appeals Court focused on the […]
