Presidential Development Corp. v. Scanlon

19 Mass. L. Rptr. 4
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedJanuary 18, 2005
DocketNo. MICV200302287A
StatusPublished

This text of 19 Mass. L. Rptr. 4 (Presidential Development Corp. v. Scanlon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Presidential Development Corp. v. Scanlon, 19 Mass. L. Rptr. 4 (Mass. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

Smith, J.

BACKGROUND

On November 8, 2002, plaintiffs Presidential Development Corporation (“Presidential”) and Hartmann Development, LLC (“Hartmann”), filed an Application (the “Application”) for Approval of a Roadway Improvement Plan (the “Plan”) pursuant to G.L.c. 41, §81G, with the Town of Wilmington Planning Board (the “Board”). The Plan sought to improve and construct a roadway within the limits of Rhode Island Road as shown on a subdivision plan entitled “Oakland Park,” dated April 23, 1907, which was recorded with the Middlesex North District Registry of Deeds. The Town of Wilmington has adopted an official map pursuant to G.L.c. 41, §8 IE.

On December 3, 2002, the Board held a public hearing on the Application. At that meeting and several meetings thereafter, the parties agreed to extend the deadline for Board action and continue public hearing on the Application. On March 4, 2003, Peter DeGennaro, president of Presidential and a member of Hartmann, sent a letter to Lynn Duncan, Director of Planning & Conservation for the Town of Wilmington, requesting that public hearing on the Application be continued until April 1,2003, and that the deadline for action be extended to April 4, 2003. In her March 5, 2003 response, Duncan informed DeGennaro that the Board voted to approve his requested extension and continuance, but that this would be the last continuance that the Board would allow.

At the Board’s April 1, 2003 meeting, the Chair told DeGennaro that the Board could either vote on the Application that night or at the next meeting, scheduled for April. 15, 2003. DeGennaro stated that he would prefer to postpone the vote to the next meeting. The Board then agreed to postpone the vote on the application and to continue the public hearing on the application until April 15, 2003. On April 2, 2003 Michael Vivaldi, Wilmington’s Assistant Town Planner, left a voicemail message for DeGennaro stating that DeGennaro still needed to submit a written request to the Board to extend the deadline for action from April 4, 2003, until at least April 18, 2003, due to the continuation of the public hearing until April 15, 2003. DeGennaro never provided said written request to the Board.

At the April 15, 2003 public hearing, the Board voted to disapprove the Application. On the same day, the Board issued a Certificate of Disapproval of a Section 81-G Application and Plan. On April 17, 2003, the Town Clerk posted the Board’s decision.

On April 29, 2003, Robert Lavoie, counsel for Presidential, sent Kathleen Scanlon, Wilmington’s Town Clerk, a letter stating that because 1) plaintiffs never agreed to extend the date for action past April 4, 2003, 2) the Board did not act by April 4, 2003, and 3) the 20-day appeal period for appealing constructive approval had passed, Scanlon must issue a Certificate of Constructive Approval relative to the Application. Scanlon did not issue said certificate. On May 7, 2003, plaintiffs brought the instant action to compel Scanlon to certify, in accordance with G.L.c. 41, §8IV, that plaintiffs’ Plan had been constructively approved because the Board failed to take final action on that Plan or to file a certificate of such action within forty-five (45) days after its submission. Because this Court finds that the Board’s actions did not result in constructive approval of the plaintiffs’ plan, the plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment is DENIED.

DISCUSSION

This court shall grant summary judgment where there are no genuine issues as to any material fact and where the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Mass.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Cassesso v. Comm’r of Correction, 390 Mass. 419, 422 (1983); Comm. Nat’l Bank v. Dawes, 369 Mass. 550, 553 (1976). The moving party shoulders the burden of affirmatively [5]*5demonstrating the absence of a triable issue, and that the summary judgment record entitles the moving party to judgment as a matter of law. Pederson v. Time, Inc., 404 Mass. 14, 16-17 (1989). The moving party may satisfy this burden either by submitting affirmative evidence that negates an essential element of the opposing party’s case or by demonstrating that the opposing party has no reasonable expectation of proving an essential element of his case at trial. Flesner v. Technical Communications Corp., 410 Mass. 805, 809 (1991); Kourouvacilis v. General Motors Corp., 410 Mass. 706, 716 (1991).

In this case, plaintiffs argue that the Board’s failure to report a decision regarding their Application to Scanlon within the forty-five-day time frame set out in G.L.c. 41, §81G resulted in constructive approval of the Plan. Plaintiffs further argue that Scanlon violated G.L.c. 41, §8IV when she failed to issue a certificate of constructive approval with respect to the Plan. Defendants maintain that a proposed roadway improvement plan, unlike a proposed definitive subdivision plan, is not susceptible to constructive approval because the constructive approval language found in certain sections of chapter 41 concerning subdivision plans was purposely left out of G.L.c. 41, §81G. Defendants’ argument is persuasive.

The sole case that the plaintiffs cite in support of their argument is Kay-Vee Realty Company, Inc. v. Town Clerk, 355 Mass. 165, 167-68 (1969). In that case, the Supreme Judicial Court held that a proposed definitive subdivision plan was constructively approved where the planning board did not approve, modify or disapprove of the plan within the applicable time frame set forth in G.L.c. 41, §81U, and that the town clerk should have issued a certificate of approval upon the request of the petitioner where the town failed to properly appeal the constructive approval within the time period set out in G.L.c. 41, §81V. Plaintiffs’ citation to that case is inapposite. The instant case involves a planning board’s failure to take timely action on a proposed roadway improvement plan pursuant to G.L.c. 41, §81G. While G.L.c. 41, §81G and §81U are both provisions concerning a planning board’s consideration process for the submission of proposed plans, that is where their similarity ends. The two provisions fall under separate subheadings within chapter 41 and contain noticeably different language with respect to the consequences of a planning board’s failure to take action in the applicable time frame after submission of a proposed plan.

The General Laws, in chapter 41, section 81G provides in relevant part:

. . . after a city or town has adopted an official map ... no public way shall be . . . altered ... if such . . . alteration ... is not in accordance with such official map as it then appears, unless the proposed . .. alteration . .. has been referred to the planning board . . . and such board has reported thereon, or has allowed forty-five days to elapse after such reference, without submitting its report.

This provision is silent as to the consequence of a planning board’s failure to report on an application for approval of a roadway improvement plan before the applicable time frame lapses. Contrary to the plaintiffs’ argument, the provision neither explicitly states nor implies that a proposed plan shall be deemed approved or that a roadway shall be laid out in the manner exactly as proposed in the submitted plan where the planning board fails to report on that plan within 45 days of its submission.

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Related

Pederson v. Time, Inc.
532 N.E.2d 1211 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1989)
First National Bank v. Judge Baker Guidance Center
431 N.E.2d 243 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1982)
Community National Bank v. Dawes
340 N.E.2d 877 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1976)
Kay-Vee Realty Co. Inc. v. Town Clerk of Ludlow
243 N.E.2d 813 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1969)
Kourouvacilis v. General Motors Corp.
575 N.E.2d 734 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1991)
Flesner v. Technical Communications Corp.
575 N.E.2d 1107 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1991)
Cassesso v. Commissioner of Correction
456 N.E.2d 1123 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1983)
General Electric Co. v. Department of Environmental Protection
711 N.E.2d 589 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1999)
Hallett v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Board
725 N.E.2d 222 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 2000)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
19 Mass. L. Rptr. 4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/presidential-development-corp-v-scanlon-masssuperct-2005.