Unable to leave well enough alone, the Supreme Judicial Court used a series of wooden puns in deciding not to change the longstanding rule that a landowner cannot hold a neighbor responsible for damage caused by that neighbor’s healthy tree.
Massachusetts is unusual in that an owner of waterfront property typically holds title to the low water mark. However, the area between the low and the high water marks normally remains subject to the rights of the public to fish,
In the just-decided Maslow v. O’Connor, the Appeals Court addressed rights in a Gloucester subdivision road. Since Gloucester is a seaside community, naturally the case concerns water access.
Section 7 of Chapter 40A contains a statute of limitations for actions by individuals and municipalities to compel the removal, alteration, or relocation of any structure due to a zoning violation. In Bruno v. Zoning Board of Appeals of Tisbury
Governor Baker recently announced a proposal to change state zoning laws to make it easier to build more housing units state-wide. The Governor’s goal is to add 135,000 housing units by 2025. To do so, he has introduced legislation that will
As drone sales in the United States continue to grow, the legal issues they present are likely to induce new attempts to regulate drone flights at the state and local level. As the legal framework allowing drones to fly within
In a November article I discussed the pending Supreme Judicial Court case Trustees of Cambridge Point Condominium Trust v. Cambridge Point, LLC. You can read the full article here, but the essential issue is whether condominium bylaw provisions limiting
On January 19th, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruled in favor of Grand Manor Condominium unit owners in their long battle with the City of Lowell to recover their loss in property value as a result of contamination caused
Massachusetts’ fledgling marijuana industry has been thrust into a state of uncertainty. On January 4th, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Obama guidelines that excluded marijuana from federal drug enforcement priorities (possession and distribution of pot is a federal offense). Obama’s guidelines paved the
