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Real Estate Litigation

Overview

Our seasoned attorneys assist real estate litigation clients in a wide range of matters, including the acquisition, disposition, valuation, and division of real estate assets; breaches of real estate contracts; landlord-tenant disputes; partnership disputes; land use and easement disputes; and disagreements between property owners and contractors.

We also assist clients in disputes with or before governmental entities – such as eminent domain proceedings, zoning matters, appealing special permits or variances, and building affordable housing under M.G.L. c. 40B.

Our attorneys regularly guide clients through matters concerning interests in real property in the specialized Massachusetts Land Court, as well as in other state and federal courts.  We also help clients achieve favorable resolutions of real estate matters in arbitration, mediation, or other forms of alternative dispute resolution.

We serve as outside litigation counsel for the Massachusetts Housing Finance Authority which, as with many of our other clients, requires us to deal with bonding issues, work-out situations, contract challenges, and major eviction problems.

Representative Results

Recent representative results in real estate litigation matters include:

  • Persuaded the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to rule in favor of the firm’s developer client on the question of when the six-year Statute of Repose begins to run in the context of a multi-building condominium project
  • Persuaded the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to reverse a lower court’s dismissal on summary judgment of a client’s regulatory taking claim involving the site of the Encore casino.
  • Successfully argued that a Massachusetts Land Court judge should affirm on behalf of clients broad easement rights for full access to their property via a driveway that crisscrosses the boundary lines of several subdivided parcels
  • Obtained a ruling from a Massachusetts Superior Court judge that rejected a commercial tenant’s claim for more than $7 million based on alleged interference in a build out of a Domino’s Pizza franchise location
  • Secured an order from a Massachusetts Superior Court judge denying a hotel operator’s preliminary injunction request in a lease dispute based on the operator allowing the property to fall into disrepair
  • Obtained a jury defense verdict dismissing all claims against a real estate developer client related to the purchase of a closed school and subsequent development of the property into single family homes

Case Studies