Drummer Boy Homes Association, Inc. v. Britton, et al. (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-145-14)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 12-P-1761 Appeals Court DRUMMER BOY HOMES ASSOCIATION, INC. vs. CAROLYN P. BRITTON & another.[1] No. 12-P-1761. Middlesex. March 3, 2014. – November 7, 2014. Present: Trainor, Brown, & Meade, JJ. Condominiums, Common expenses. Real Property, Condominium. Lien. Mortgage, Priority. Civil actions commenced in the Concord Division of the District Court Department on August 6, 2007; February 6, 2008; and October 6, 2008. After consolidation, the case was heard by Peter J. Kilmartin, J., on a motion for summary judgment, and a motion to alter and amend the judgment was also heard by him. Thomas O. Moriarty (Katherine G. Brady with him) for the plaintiff. Randy A. Britton, pro se. Henry A. Goodman, Ellen A. Shapiro, Merle R. Hass, Charles A. Perkins, Jr., & Gary M. Daddario, for Community Associations Institute, amicus curiae, submitted a brief. Stephen C. Reilly & Jennifer E. Greaney, for Bank of America, N.A., amicus curiae, submitted a brief. BROWN, J. The plaintiff, Drummer Boy Homes Association, Inc. (Association), appeals from a decision and order of the Appellate Division of the District Court in the Association’s consolidated actions against the owners of a condominium unit to recover unpaid common expenses. The Appellate Division ruled that, pursuant to G. L. c. 183A, § 6, the Association’s statutory lien for those expenses was prior to the first mortgage on the defendants’ unit only to the extent of amounts due for the six months preceding the institution of the first of the Association’s three consolidated lawsuits, and not for the three successive six-month periods preceding each suit. The defendants, Carolyn P. Britton and Randy Britton, appearing pro se, cross-appeal, claiming the judgment is void due to misnomer of the plaintiff.[2] We affirm. 1. Background. We summarize the undisputed facts and procedural history from the Appellate Division’s July 9, 2010, opinion, supplemented from the record. The Association provides for the common operation of a condominium complex in Lexington known as Drummer Boy Green. The defendants, owners of a unit in the complex, withheld payment of their monthly fees for common expenses in connection with a dispute with the Association over certain parking rules and associated fines. Pertinent here, the Association filed an action in the District Court on July 31, 2007, to recover the unpaid common expenses and to establish a […]