Taylor, et al. v. Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-162-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us SJC-11963 HUGH C. TAYLOR, trustee,[1] & others[2] vs. MARTHA’S VINEYARD LAND BANK COMMISSION. Suffolk. March 8, 2016. – October 11, 2016. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Duffly, Lenk, & Hines, JJ.[3] Easement. Real Property, Easement. Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission. Civil action commenced in the Land Court Department on June 9, 2010. A motion for summary judgment was heard by Alexander H. Sands, III, J., and the remaining issues were also heard by him. The Supreme Judicial Court granted an application for direct appellate review. Diane C. Tillotson for the defendant. Gordon M. Orloff for the plaintiffs. Jeffrey T. Angley & Nicholas P. Shapiro, for Roma III, Ltd., amicus curiae, submitted a brief. Greg D. Peterson, Mark S. Furman, & Matthew S. Furman, for Sarah A. Kent, amicus curiae, submitted a brief. LENK, J. The defendant, Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission, owns and manages a nature preserve on the western edge of Martha’s Vineyard. The preserve is comprised of various parcels of land that the defendant purchased in the 1990s. In 2010, the defendant created a hiking trail through the preserve, which it planned to open to the public. The trail began on a main road, crossed over the grounds of an inn owned by the plaintiffs via a forty-foot wide easement, proceeded from there across three parcels of the defendant’s land for whose benefit the easement was created, and then entered a fourth parcel, also owned by the defendant, that was not intended to benefit from the easement. The plaintiffs filed an action in the Land Court to prevent the defendant from using the easement as part of the hiking trail. They argued, among other things, that it was improper, pursuant to Murphy v. Mart Realty of Brockton, Inc., 348 Mass. 675 (1965), for the trail to cross over the easement and then continue onto the fourth parcel, given that the easement was not intended to serve that parcel. On this basis, a judge of the Land Court granted partial summary judgment for the plaintiffs. Following a bench trial, at which certain remaining issues were resolved in the defendant’s favor, the defendant appealed from the grant of partial summary judgment, and we allowed its application for direct appellate review.[4] The defendant contends that the bright-line rule […]