Maslow v. O’Connor (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-040-18)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 16-P-1674 Appeals Court JAMES MASLOW & others.[1] vs. CAROLYN O’CONNOR[2] & others.[3] No. 16-P-1674. Essex. January 3, 2018. – April 6, 2018. Present: Wolohojian, Milkey, & Englander, JJ. Real Property, Littoral property, License, Harbors. Way, Private. Trust, Public trust. Real Property, Harbors. Civil action commenced in the Superior Court Department on March 29, 2011. Motions for summary judgment were heard by Robert A. Cornetta, J. Robert S. Wolfe for the plaintiffs. John A. Christopher (Glenn A. Wood also present) for the defendants. ENGLANDER, J. In this case we examine whether the filling of an area of tidelands pursuant to a G. L. c. 91 license extinguished rights held by upland owners to cross that area to access the remaining tidelands and the sea. A Superior Court judge determined that the filling of certain tidelands extinguished the plaintiffs’ rights to access remaining tidelands through the end of a private way to which they were abutters. We reverse, because the c. 91 license by its terms preserved those rights. Background. a. The dispute.[4] This case involves Rackliffe Street, a private way on Rocky Neck, a peninsula that juts into Gloucester Harbor. Rackliffe Street runs north-south, and it is not disputed that at least prior to 1925, the southern end of Rackliffe terminated at the mean high water mark of Wonson’s Cove, in Gloucester Harbor, such that Rackliffe Street abutters could walk down Rackliffe and access the tidelands from the end of the street. Currently, the black-topped Rackliffe Street does not extend all the way to Wonson’s Cove. Rather, it terminates approximately ten feet short of the high water mark, after which one must pass over a “grassy strip.” At the southerly end of this ten-foot grassy strip there is a ramp, which descends into the tidelands and can be used for access. The basic dispute is as follows: The plaintiffs are Rackliffe Street abutters whose homes are not at the southerly end of the street but who seek access to the tidelands across the grassy strip and ramp. The defendants are the most southerly abutters, on opposite sides of Rackliffe Street where the street ends at Wonson’s Cove. They seek to prevent such access. The O’Connor defendants live at number 18, on the east side of Rackliffe; defendant […]