McCants v. Clerk of Suffolk Superior Court for Criminal Business (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-082-13)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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‑11263 OWEN McCANTS vs. CLERK OF SUFFOLK SUPERIOR COURT FOR CRIMINAL BUSINESS. May 14, 2013. Supreme Judicial Court, Superintendence of inferior courts. Moot Question. Practice, Civil, Moot case. Owen McCants appeals from a judgment of a single justice of this court dismissing as moot his petition for a writ of mandamus and for a declaratory judgment. We affirm. A Superior Court jury convicted McCants of several crimes, and the Appeals Court affirmed the convictions. See Commonwealth v. McCants, 65 Mass. App. Ct. 1121 (2006). McCants thereafter filed a motion for a new trial, which was denied. He then filed a notice of appeal, the record was assembled, and the appeal was entered in the Appeals Court, where it remains pending. Then, in April, 2012, he filed a petition in the county court, asserting that the trial court clerk’s office had failed to docket several pleadings that he had filed in that court in connection with the motion for a new trial. In response, the respondent submitted a letter to the county court indicating that the clerk’s office had updated the docket to include the pleadings in question and that the entire record, including those pleadings, had been assembled and forwarded to the Appeals Court. On the basis that McCants had received the relief that he was seeking — the docketing of his pleadings in the trial court — the single justice dismissed the petition as moot. In his appeal from the dismissal of his petition McCants argues that the matter is not moot because the respondent failed to file a timely response to his petition and that she therefore “waived” her right to respond. Regardless whether the respondent’s letter was timely, it was within the court’s discretion to accept it for filing on the date that it was received. As indicated in the letter and reflected in the trial court docket, the pleadings that McCants sought to have docketed had by that time been docketed, apparently in response to McCants’s petition in the county court. Nowhere in the record or in McCants’s appeal to this court does McCants dispute that the pleadings in question have been docketed and included in the record assembled for his appeal from the denial of his motion for a new trial. To the extent that McCants […]
Boylston-Area Business Owners Eager to Reopen
The area surrounding the site of the Boston Marathon bombings is not quite back to normal, but it’s starting to get close. City officials and inspectors have been leading business owners through their businesses within the still-closed-off section of Boylston Street Tuesday. The FBI handed the crime scene off to the city of Boston Monday, but Boylston Street between Hereford and Berekley streets is still closed to the public. Keith Shirley, owner of Meridian Realty Group at 46 Gloucester St. between Newbury and Boylston streets, said the lack of access to his business for the past eight days has made things difficult. “We’ve had logistical issues,” he said from behind the blocked off gate on Gloucester Street. “We haven’t been able to write checks or process paperwork.” He said he registered with the city’s database and has been told he could things could be back to normal in the area by Wednesday night. “The city has been extremely helpful,” he said. Mayor Thomas Menino’s Back Bay Assistance Response Team is at the Hynes Convention Center at 900 Boylston St., which is being used as a connecting point for business owners trying to get to their businesses. Police and guard gates still block points of entry at each street that bisects Boylston Street within the crime scene. Throughout Tuesday, inspectors have allowed business owners into the scene, which one week ago was cordoned off after two bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon in front of Marathon Sports and near Forum restaurant at 755 Boylston, according to the following staggered schedule: 10:00 a.m. Enrty to block between Hereford and Gloucester 11:00 a.m. Enrty to Block between Gloucester and Fairfield 12:00 p.m. Enrty to Block between Dartmouth and Clarendon 1:00 p.m. Enrty to Block between Clarendon and Berkeley 2:00 p.m. Enrty to Block between Exeter and Dalton 3:00 p.m. Enrty to Block between Fairfield and Exeter There is no timeline as to when the area might be opened to the public, according to John Guilfoil, deputy press secretary the mayor’s office. “They won’t open to the public until businesses and residents have had a chance to see” the damage, he said. South End Patch
VIDEO: Boylston Street Business Shows Support with ‘26.2together’ Signs
Two women from Breakaway Innovation Group on Boylston Street were at the Boston Marathon victims’ memorial at Boylston and Berkeley streets on Thursday afternoon handing out printed signs to show their support in the aftermath of Monday’s bombing. The small posters show a Boston skyline with an overlay of a red Boston “B” and text reading “26.2gether.” “We just thought it would be nice to print these out and give them to local places in support and solidarity for the whole community,” said Breakaway employee Megan Brock of Somerville. ProPrint on Boylston Street donated 250 copies of the poster. South End Patch
Week in Review: South End Business, Drug Arrests
The following are the top headlines on South End Patch from March 4th to March 8, 2013: Pine Street Inn Resident Charged with Shooting Heroin in Boston Medical Center Men’s Room Police arrested a Harrison Avenue resident for alleged drug use at Boston Medical Center on Monday. South End’s Genuine Interactive Named One of Boston’s Fastest Growing Businesses The Boston Business Journal will recognize these ‘2013 Pacesetters’—and announce the No. 1 business in Massachusetts—at an event in April in downtown Boston. More than 300 Snow Removal Tickets Issued in South End in February The week after the Blizzard of 2013, city officials issued more than 300 tickets and fines in the South End’s wards 4, 8, and 9. South End’s Street Sweeping Program Expanded to Other Neighborhoods The extended South End street sweeping will continue into 2013 and expand into other Boston neighborhoods. Boston Man Charged with Selling Heroin in the South End The following information was supplied by the Boston Police Department. Charges listed do not indicate a conviction. SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates South End Patch