Mark Moore Homes, Inc. v. Tarvezian

1998 Mass. App. Div. 172, 1998 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 73
CourtMassachusetts District Court, Appellate Division
DecidedAugust 21, 1998
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 1998 Mass. App. Div. 172 (Mark Moore Homes, Inc. v. Tarvezian) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts District Court, Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mark Moore Homes, Inc. v. Tarvezian, 1998 Mass. App. Div. 172, 1998 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 73 (Mass. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

Sherman, P.J.

This is an action to recover use and occupancy charges, eviction expenses and unpaid utility bills after the foreclosure and sale of commercial premises and the eviction of the former owner/occupant. Judgment was entered for the plaintiff, and the defendant filed this Dist./Mun. Cts. R. A. D. A, Rule 8C appeal.

The record indicates that from 1975 to 1990, defendant George Tarvezian (‘Tarvezian”), individually and through numerous associations and trusts,1 owned property at 26-32 Locust Street in Belmont. The property consisted of two commercial buildings, a small garage and the parcel of land on which they were located. Although the surrounding area was zoned for residential use, the buildings in question were properly utilized for commercial purposes as a non-conforming use valid under Belmont’s Zoning By-laws. Between 1975 and 1980, Tarvezian leased the premises to various commercial tenants for manufacturing, research and development, product assembly, engineering and related office and storage space. From 1980 until his eviction, Tarvezian used both buildings for his own office and storage purposes.

[173]*173Tarvezian defaulted on a mortgage note to Coolidge Bank & Trust Co., the Bank foreclosed in 1990, and the property was acquired by Sumter Fifteen Corp. (“Sumter”). Upon Tarvezian’s refusal to vacate the premises, Sumter commenced District Court summary process proceedings in 1991 and obtained a judgment for possession on January 30,1992. Tarvezian appealed to the Superior Court, and the District Court ordered him to pay $1,500.00 per month for use and occupancy of the premises during the pendency of his appeals. A Superior Court judgment for possession in favor of Sumter was entered on January 30,1993. The Appeals Court affirmed that judgment on August 12,1994. A writ of execution for possession was issued on October 12,1994, and Tarvezian was finally removed from the property by Deputy Sheriffs on October 13,1994.

On August 23,1993, during the appeals process, Mark Moore Homes, Inc. (“the plaintiff’) purchased the property from Sumter. Tarvezian failed to make any payments for use and occupancy from the transfer of the property on August 23,1993 to the date of his eviction on October 13, 1994. The plaintiff filed this suit in November, 1994 to recover $109,554.24 for use and occupancy, $4,268.43 in itemized eviction expenses and $73.63 for unpaid water bills.

Tarvezian denied any liability for use and occupancy charges on the grounds that the property had no commercial market value because the nonconforming use was terminated two years after the 1980 departure of his last commercial tenant. The trial court’s written findings of fact included the following:

Despite the foreclosure, Tarvezian continued to occupy the buildings on the property. He refused to pay rent to anyone. Tarvezian used both buildings for storage. The area where the property is located is zoned for residential use. However, Defendant validly used the two buildings for commercial purposes as a nonconforming use. Such nonconforming use would have been forfeited had the buildings remained vacant for more than two years. During Tarvezian’s continued occupancy of the two buildings, he kept alive the nonconforming use by his use of both the buildings for storage.

Tarvezian also counterclaimed, inter alia, for "interference with quiet possession” based on the plaintiff’s trespass onto the property. The court found:

On August 18,1994, after judgment in the summary process case but before execution issued, plaintiff attempted to take possession of the properly. Plaintiff changed the locks to the property. During the brief period of its entry on the property, plaintiff did not disturb the property at all. One day later, defendant regained control of the property and changed the locks again.
Plaintiff’s entry on the property was improper since execution had not issued. Defendant is entitled to recover for the value of one day’s occupancy ($300) and the cost of changing locks ($330). Defendants have no proven claims for emotional distress or invasion of privacy.

The court assessed damages against Tarvezian in the amount of $22,500.00 for fifteen months’ use and occupancy plus $73.71 for unpaid water bills, set-off the $630.00 awarded to Tarvezian on his counterclaim, and ordered judgment for the plaintiff in the net amount of $21,843.71.

1. Tarvezian’s appeal consists solely of a charge of error in specific findings of fact by the trial court; namely, that the use and occupancy value of the property was $1,500.00 per month, and that Tarvezian had no proven claim for invasion of privacy or infliction of emotional distress. He argues that the court’s findings were not warranted as a matter of law by the “undisputed” evidence adduced at trial. [174]*174Tarvezian effectively waved, however, any appellate consideration of the sufficiency of the evidence to have permitted or required findings in his favor by failing to file either Mass. R. Civ. R, Rule 64A requests for rulings of law, Worcester County Nat’l Bank v. Brogna, 386 Mass. 1002, 1002-1003 (1982); Ducker v. Ducker, 1997 Mass. App. Div. 147, 148, or a Mass. R. Civ. P., Rule 41(b) (2) motion for involuntary dismissal of the plaintiff’s claim. See Espinola v. Riley’s Liquors, Inc., 1994 Mass. App. Div. 96. It should be too elementary to require restatement here that appellate review in District Court non-jury civil proceedings is limited to issues of law properly raised in the trial court and preserved for appeal by the filing of requests for rulings. Macone Bros., Inc. v. Strauss, 1997 Mass. App. Div. 95, 95-96; Cooperstein v. Turner Bros. Construc., Inc., 1992 Mass. App. Div. 249, 251.

Where, as in the instant case, a trial judge elects to make voluntary written findings of fact not required in a District Court non-jury action, a narrow window of appellate opportunity is created for a party who has failed to preserve his right to appellate review. Consideration may be given on appeal to the question of whether the trial court’s findings of fact are so devoid of support in the record that they are “clearly erroneous.” Kendall v. Selvaggio, 413 Mass. 619, 620-621 (1992); Waters v. Min Ltd., 412 Mass. 64, 66 (1992). In undertaking such review, however, an appellate court does not weigh anew evidence in support of the appellant’s position, as Tarvezian urges here. Lundgren v. Gray, 41 Mass. App. Ct. 451, 457 (1996). The trial court’s findings of fact are accorded the customary appellate deference, Judge Rotenberg Educ. Ctr., Inc. v. Commissioner of Dept. of Men. Retard., 424 Mass. 430, 452 (1997); Starr v. Fordham, 420 Mass. 178, 186 (1995), and the burden of proof is on the appellant, Demoulas v. Demoulas Super Markets, Inc., 424 Mass. 501, 509 (1997); Shear v. Gabovitch, 43 Mass. App. Ct. 650, 652 (1997), to establish that the court’s findings cannot be substantiated “on any reasonable view of the evidence, including all rational inferences of which it was susceptible.” First Penn. Mortg. Trust v. Dorchester Sav. Bank, 395 Mass. 614, 624 (1985), quoting from T.L. Edwards, Inc. v. Fields, 371 Mass. 895, 896 (1976).2

2. Tarvezian has clearly failed to satisfy such burden.

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Bluebook (online)
1998 Mass. App. Div. 172, 1998 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 73, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mark-moore-homes-inc-v-tarvezian-massdistctapp-1998.