State Room, Inc. v. MA-60 State Associates, L.L.C., et al. (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-111-13)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 12‑P‑1915 Appeals Court STATE ROOM, INC. vs. MA-60 STATE ASSOCIATES, L.L.C., & others.[1] No. 12‑P‑1915. Suffolk. May 10, 2013. ‑ September 13, 2013. Present: Grasso, Sikora, & Maldonado, JJ. Appraisal. Value. Landlord and Tenant, Rent. Civil action commenced in the Superior Court Department on October 6, 2011. A motion to dismiss was heard by Peter M. Lauriat, J. Colleen C. Cook for the plaintiff. Lawrence G. Green (Alexandra Capachietti with him) for the defendants. SIKORA, J. This appeal presents a dispute between the parties of a long-term commercial tenancy at a downtown Boston high-rise office building. The landlord parties consist of three corporations and a real estate investment trust identified in the margin;[2] we shall refer to them collectively as the landlord. The tenant is State Room, Inc. (State Room), a Massachusetts corporation. In 1990 and 1994, the parties’ predecessors in interest executed the governing lease documents (lease). Sixty State Street is a building of thirty-eight rentable floors. The space at issue occupies portions of the thirty-third and thirty-fourth floors. Over time it has served as a restaurant and as an event venue (i.e., as function rooms for business and social events). The principal issue on appeal is the enforceability of the current rental rate for the extension of the tenancy through the ten years from May 1, 2010, through April 30, 2020. In accordance with the terms of the lease, when the parties could not agree upon that figure, they submitted it to an appraisal process. In 2009, the designated appraisers calculated rates for the oncoming decade. In 2010, State Room objected to the rates as the product of mistaken information and flawed application of the appraisal criteria prescribed by the lease. When the appraisers declined to reconsider their computation, State Room brought suit in Superior Court seeking a judgment declaring the invalidity of the resulting rates and an order compelling a new appraisal. A judge of that court entered a judgment of dismissal in favor of the landlord. For the following reasons, we now affirm. Background. In review of a dismissal pursuant to Mass.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), 365 Mass. 754 (1974), we draw our facts from the allegations of the complaint and from its appended materials incorporated by reference. See Schaer v. Brandeis Univ., […]
2 Dozen Candidates Elbow for Room in Mayor’s Race
Five weeks ago, there was one declared candidate for mayor. John Connolly had his run of the city while current Mayor Tom Menino weighed his future. Now, fully two dozen men and women have pulled nomination papers for the mayor’s race. A map of the current list of candidates finds some familiar patterns: Most candidates live toward south and center of the city, matching the city’s overall population density. But that means candidates who live a mere blocks apart will tussle over the same turf and base of voter support. There are 11 candidates from Dorchester, four from Hyde Park, three from Roxbury, two from Roxbury and one each from East Boston, Jamaica Plain and Mission Hill. The top two vote-getters in the primary will move on to the final. The Boston Herald’s Peter Gelzinis called this a “shootout in a lifeboat” for some off the major candidates, who need a reliable base of support as they reach out for voters in other parts of town. If the 11 Dorchester candidates break up the neighborhood’s massive voting bloc, that means the top-two candidates need fewer votes to make the finals. That’s a boost for small-neighborhood candidates like JP’s Felix Arroyo and Mission Hill’s Mike Ross. There may be more candidates; they have until May 13 to pull papers. After that, the hopefuls have until May 21 to collect signatures and file them with the city. That process will likely winnow the field down by a few names. South End Patch
BMC Emergency Room Wait Times Comparable to Other Boston Hospitals
Which Boston emergency room is the most efficient? It depends on what you mean, according to data released by the Center for Medicare & Medicid Services. At the South End’s Boston Medical Center, the average time patients spent in the emergency department before they were seen by a healthcare professional was 18 minutes, which is much quicker than the state and national averages of 40 and 30 minutes, but but longer than the wait at Mass. General, which is 10 minutes. Of those patients, the average time patients spent in the BMC emergency department before being sent home was 181 minutes, compared to the state average of 152 minutes and the national average of 140 minutes. Finally, the average time patients spent in the BMC emergency department, before they were admitted to the hospital as an inpatient was 280 minutes, compared to the state average of 311 minutes and the national average of 277 minutes. CHART: See how Boston Medical Center compares to other city emergency rooms Behind the NumbersKey measures of ER efficiency have been posted from hospitals taking part across the country, according to a report by Cheryl Clark, senior quality editor for HealthLeaders Media. “With precious little fanfare, Uncle Sam last month rolled out a big, fat database with seven measures comparing a service that many people—healthcare providers and patients alike—consider the most critical any hospital can provide,” wrote Clark. Data collected in 2011 and early 2012 also tracked how long it took for an ER patient to be seen by a healthcare professional and how long the wait was to get a bed if they needed admission. Other data showed how long patients spent in the ER before being sent home and whether they received a brain scan if they might have suffered a stroke. Clark interviewed Dr. Jesse Pines, an emergency room doctor and researcher who directs the center for healthcare quality at George Washington University. “The theory is that when hospitals report this information, it makes them focus on it, and improve throughout their [Emergency Department],” Pines was quoted as saying. “But it’s very hard to do. Certain performance measures are easier to fix—like simple process measures like giving patients an aspirin—than improving ED throughput, which involves development of interdisciplinary teams.” Pines told Clark the public focus good pushes hospital administrators to focus on the emergency room as well as other metrics. In a column, Clark said she thought the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would “make a bigger fuss about such a major release.” She added: Certainly with so much concern about ED overcrowding, and the number of […]
Chart: Compare Boston Emergency Room Wait Times
Boston’s famous for its medical facilities, several of which offer emergency care. But anyone who’s gone to the ER in the city knows it can take a while before you get back home. The chart above compares various emergency room wait times in Boston. The data used comes from the center for Medicare & Medicaid Center’s Hospital Compare web site. Learn more about the Medicare data used in this chart. SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates South End Patch
South End Man Charged with Shooting Heroin in Boston Medical Center Men’s Room
Boston Police Officers responded to a report of an unresponsive male locked in a bathroom stall at Boston Medical Center at 840 Harrison Avenue at 3:45 p.m. on March 4. Upon arrival, officers reported that they found an unresponsive male slouched over the toilet in a locked stall with a hypodermic needle exposed and an aluminum container with a brown colored cooked residue consistent with heroin located on the bathroom floor. The officer called for the in-house medical staff for a possible overdose and broke open the lock to check on the well being of the suspect. The suspect came to, but was disoriented. He sat on the toilet with his sleeve rolled up and the officer reportedly observed a mark from a recent injection. The officer asked if the man was OK. The suspect reportedly replied that he had “just shot some heroin.” As the officer went to help the suspect stand up, the officer reportedly saw a small bag of brown powder fall from the suspect’s waistband. The officer called off the medical response. The suspect claimed that he did not know anything about the baggie of powder and that “the heroin belonged to a friend.” The suspect told officer that he had come to the hospital to shoot up and that he had no medical business there. The officer searched the suspect and found three transparent plastic baggies containing brown powder, two hypodermic needles and two metallic caps used for cooking, one containing brown powder residue and burn marks. The needles were properly disposed of and the bags were taken in as evidence. Officers arrested Jorge Luis Lugo of 444 Harrison Avenue and charged him with possession of a Class A substance with intent to distribute. South End Patch
Boston Police Disrupt Alleged Men’s Room Drug Deal
The following information was supplied by the Boston Police Department. Charges listed do not indicate a conviction. A call for suspicious activity at Boston Medical Center lead to the arrest of a South End man for drug possession on Friday. Boston Police Officers responded to a report of a suspicious circumstance on the 7th floor of 725 Albany Street on February 22 around 10:45 a.m. While conducting a routine patrol of 725 Albany Street, an officer reported he witnessed a man in a handicapped bathroom stall hand something to a man outside. The men denied that any transaction took place. The officer reported that both men looked panicked. The officer conducted a query and found that one of the men was wanted on a warrant out of Brighton District Court. Officers placed the suspect in handcuffs and took him to the holding cell at Boston University Medical Campus. Boston Police transferred the suspect to the District Four Police Station at During the booking process, the officers found two bags in his possession, one with brown powder believed to be herion and the other with white powder believed to be cocaine. Giovanny Perdomo of 444 Harrison Avenue was charged with possession of a Class A substance and possession of a Class B substance. SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates South End Patch