Great Woods, Inc., et al. v. Clemmey (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-092-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 15-P-657 Appeals Court GREAT WOODS, INC., & another[1] vs. KARL D. CLEMMEY. No. 15-P-657. Middlesex. January 15, 2016. – July 26, 2016. Present: Green, Wolohojian, & Henry, JJ. Injunction. Judgment, Relief from judgment, Consent judgment. Practice, Civil, Relief from judgment, Judicial discretion. Civil action commenced in the Superior Court Department on November 21, 1994. After review by this court, 86 Mass. App. Ct. 1115 (2014), a motion for clarification or for modification or dissolution of a permanent injunction was heard by Kathe M. Tuttman, J. Nicholas P. Shapiro (Robert K. Hopkins with him) for the defendant. Jeffrey S. King for the intervener. WOLOHOJIAN, J. After a series of disruptive and threatening incidents, Great Woods, Inc. (Great Woods), brought suit to enjoin Karl Clemmey from entering its property, a large entertainment venue in Mansfield. The suit was resolved when, in 1996, Clemmey agreed to the entry of a permanent injunction that provided: “Clemmey, whether acting personally or through any other person acting under his direction or control, is hereby strictly and permanently ORDERED to desist and refrain (1) from entering upon or crossing over the property in Mansfield, Massachusetts, under the control of Great Woods, Inc. (owned by Time Trust, or Sherman Wolfe,) for any reason whatsoever without the express written consent of Great Woods, Inc. and (2) from accosting, harassing, intimidating or threatening any owner, manager, employee or agent of Great Woods, Inc.” Seventeen years later, in 2013, Clemmey moved to “clarify” that Great Woods’s successor in interest, Live Nation Worldwide, Inc. (Live Nation), had no right to enforce the permanent injunction. In the alternative, Clemmey moved, pursuant to Mass.R.Civ.P. 60(b)(5), 365 Mass. 828 (1974), to modify or dissolve the injunction based on changed circumstances.[2] A judge of the Superior Court (who was not the judge who entered the original injunction) denied Clemmey’s motion and modified the injunction to, in essence, substitute Live Nation for Great Woods. Clemmey appealed, and in an unpublished memorandum and order issued pursuant to our rule 1:28, we vacated the modification order and remanded for findings of fact on the ground that the modification was essentially a new injunction requiring explicit findings. Great Woods, Inc. v. Clemmey, 86 Mass. App. Ct. 1115 (2014). On remand, the judge made findings […]