DeGiacomo v. City of Quincy, et al. (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-179-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-11940 JAMES R. DeGIACOMO, trustee, vs. CITY OF QUINCY & others. Suffolk. September 7, 2016. – November 15, 2016. Present: Gants, C.J., Botsford, Lenk, Hines, Gaziano, Lowy, & Budd, JJ. Res Judicata. Collateral Estoppel. Judgment, Preclusive effect. Trust, Charitable trust. Contract, Lease of real estate, Rescission. Real Property, Lease. Fiduciary. Attorney General. Civil action commenced in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk on February 19, 2014. The case was heard by Spina, J., on motions for summary judgment. James R. DeGiacomo (Susan J. Baronoff with him) for the plaintiff. James S. Timmins, City Solicitor, for city of Quincy. Barry S. Pollack (Phillip Rakhunov with him) for Quincy Historical Society. GANTS, C.J. In 1971, the city of Quincy (Quincy), as trustee of the Adams Temple and School Fund (Adams Fund), filed a “bill of complaint” in equity asking a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to enter a decree authorizing it to execute a proposed fifty-year lease of the building and parking lot of the Adams Academy that it had negotiated with the Quincy Historical Society (Society). The Attorney General was a defendant in that action, but the Woodward School for Girls, Inc. (Woodward School or School), which was the sole income beneficiary of the Adams Fund, was not. In 1972, the single justice decreed that Quincy was authorized to execute the proposed lease. The successor trustee of the Adams Fund now seeks rescission of that lease, as well as money damages and restitution, claiming that Quincy violated its fiduciary duty of loyalty by executing the lease approved by the single justice. The issue presented on appeal is whether the successor trustee of the Adams Fund is precluded by res judicata from obtaining that relief. The successor trustee contends that he should not be precluded because neither he nor the Woodward School was a party to the equity proceeding in 1972, and the School could not reasonably have intervened because it was not given notice of the proposed lease or the filing of the complaint. Quincy and the Society contend that preclusion is appropriate because, where the Adams Fund is a public charitable trust, the only necessary party to the equity proceeding was the Attorney General, who was in privity with the School based on a statutory responsibility under G. L. c. 12, § 8, […]
The Woodward School for Girls, Inc. v. City of Quincy, et al. (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-129-14)
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-11390 THE WOODWARD SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, INC. vs. CITY OF QUINCY, trustee,[1] & another.[2] Norfolk. December 2, 2013. – July 23, 2014. Present: Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Gants, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ. Trust, Charitable trust, Investments, Trustee’s accounts. Damages, Breach of fiduciary duty, Interest. Interest. Massachusetts Tort Claims Act. Governmental Immunity. Immunity from Suit. Municipal Corporations, Trusts, Governmental immunity. Waiver. Laches. Civil action commenced in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk on July 11, 2007. After transfer to the Norfolk County Division of the Probate and Family Court Department, the case was heard by Robert W. Langlois, J. The Supreme Judicial Court on its own initiative transferred the case from the Appeals Court. John S. Leonard (James S. Timmins, City Solicitor, with him) for city of Quincy. Sarah G. Kim (Josephine M. Deang Chin & Alison K. Eggers with her) for the plaintiff. CORDY, J. This dispute arises from a trust established in 1822 by former President John Adams and supplemented by a bequest of his grandson in 1886. The city[3] of Quincy (Quincy) served as trustee of the Adams Temple and School Fund and the Charles Francis Adams Fund (collectively, Funds) through two boards.[4] The Woodward School for Girls, Inc. (Woodward), the income beneficiary of the Funds since 1953, filed suit against Quincy initially seeking an accounting and thereafter asserting that Quincy committed a breach of its fiduciary duties to keep adequate records, invest the trust’s assets properly, exercise reasonable prudence in the sales of real estate, and incur only reasonable expenses related to the management of the Funds. We transferred the case here on our own motion following Quincy’s appeal and Woodward’s cross appeal from a Probate and Family Court judge’s ruling removing Quincy as trustee and ordering it to pay a nearly $ 3 million judgment.[5] On appeal, Quincy asserts that the trial judge erred in finding that Quincy committed a breach of its fiduciary duties to the Funds by failing to invest in growth equities to protect the principal when the Funds have only an income beneficiary to provide for, and by not heeding specific investment advice it received in 1973. In addition, Quincy challenges the award of damages, alleging that it was based on an improperly introduced and unsound […]