Ryan Tarasuik, acting as his own attorney, petitioned the Supreme Judicial Court for extraordinary relief under General Laws chapter 211, section 3, challenging a civil contempt judgment entered against him in Housing Court and efforts to enforce it. A single justice denied the petition, finding it did not present the type of exceptional matter warranting the court’s intervention. Tarasuik moved for reconsideration, which was also denied, and appealed.
The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed. Tarasuik failed to demonstrate the absence of adequate alternative remedies, a requirement for extraordinary relief. Because a civil contempt judgment is an appealable final judgment, Tarasuik had a direct appeal available to challenge its validity through ordinary appellate procedures. He did not explain why he could not have pursued that standard remedy instead of seeking extraordinary intervention. Without showing that normal appellate review was unavailable or inadequate, he was not entitled to relief under chapter 211, section 3.
The full text of the opinion follows below. Slip opinions are subject to formal revision; the official version is published in the official reports.
CourtSupreme Judicial Court
DocketSJC 13981
ReleasedOctober 20, 2026
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SJC-13981
RYAN TARASUIK vs. 162 WASHINGTON LLC & others.1
October 20, 2026.
Supreme Judicial Court, Superintendence of inferior courts.
The petitioner, Ryan Tarasuik, appeals from the judgment of a single justice of this court denying his petition for extraordinary relief pursuant to G. L. c. 211, § 3. We affirm.
Tarasuik is a litigant in the Northeast Division of the Housing Court Department. In his petition to the single justice, he challenged the validity of a judgment of civil contempt that entered against him in the Housing Court, as well as the efforts of a Housing Court judge to enforce that judgment. The single justice denied Tarasuik's petition, concluding that it did not present "the type of exceptional matter that requires the court's extraordinary intervention." Commonwealth v. Fontanez, 482 Mass. 22, 25 (2019). Tarasuik moved for reconsideration, and his motion was denied. Tarasuik now appeals from the judgment of the single justice.2
1 Rock and Sons Property Management LLC, and Joseph Rock. The Northeast Division of the Housing Court Department was also named as a respondent; we treat it as a nominal party. See S.J.C. Rule 2:22, 422 Mass. 1302 (1996).
2 Tarasuik has filed a memorandum and appendix pursuant to S.J.C. Rule 2:21, as amended, 434 Mass. 1301 (2001), but rule 2:21 does not apply here because the civil contempt judgment from which Tarasuik appeals is not an interlocutory order but an appealable final judgment. See Gaines v. Attorney Gen., 495 Mass. 1016, 1018 (2025). Although Tarasuik's appeal is not Because Tarasuik failed to demonstrate the absence of adequate alternative relief, he was not entitled to relief pursuant to G. L. c. 211, § 3, and we discern no error of law or abuse of discretion in the decision of the single justice to deny Tarasuik's petition. See Fontanez, 482 Mass. at 24-25. Specifically, Tarasuik did not establish why he could not have challenged the validity of the civil contempt judgment in the ordinary course of appeal, that is, by appealing directly from the civil contempt judgment. See Gaines v. Attorney Gen., 495 Mass. 1016, 1018 (2025), quoting Strahan v. Superior Court Dep't of the Trial Court, 452 Mass. 1017, 1018 (2008) ("judgment of civil contempt is an appealable final judgment"). As Tarasuik has not demonstrated the absence of adequate alternative relief, the judgment of the single justice is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
The case was submitted on the papers filed, accompanied by a memorandum of law.
Ryan Tarasuik, pro se.
limited by the requirements of rule 2:21, nevertheless, for the reasons described herein, he was not entitled to relief pursuant to G. L. c. 211, § 3.
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