Last Friday, in a pre-trial ruling, a Salem District Court judge gave the Manchester Community Center a clear message: you may go to trial on April 3 against Harbor’s Point Condominium Association, but not with arguments that are irrelevant or unsubstantiated.
The MCC is fighting an eviction notice served in November 2023 by Harbor’s Point Condominium Association after the lease for the land that its 2,141-sqft building sits on was terminated.
The MCC building was donated in 1976 by an automotive dealership owner from Essex, Augustus “Gus” Means as a youth center. It sits on land owned by HPCA that abuts the train station. Means excluded the land from his gift, and for decades the MCC signed a series of land leases, even as the Harbor’s Point board took to waiving the rent each year as a gift to the MCC.
In 2017, things changed when Harbor’s Point asked the MCC to pay $200/month in rent. The MCC balked, but eventually relented and in the years that followed, acrimony between them grew.
The MCC believed the annual rotation of family-friendly community programs it hosts, like the Manchester Mothers Club’s Wobblin’ Gobblin or the Jingle Bell Walk at Masconomo Park, should give them a pass on rent. The HPCA, for its part, was critical that the MCC building always seemed empty and unused, especially by senior citizens who have been seeking a proper Senior Center for programs and services. By early 2023, the HPCA moved to a month-to-month lease. The relationship remained fraught.
By last fall, the MCC asked the town to intervene and take over the land lease, which would enable the MCC to continue its programming while the town could use the space for a temporary COA senior center and other services. A 10-year agreement was struck in concept between the town and the HPCA, and it was successfully endorsed by a vote at Manchester’s Nov. 13 Special Town Meeting. All seemed good: a “win-win-win.”
But just weeks later, the MCC walked away from the potential deal, formally notifying the HPCA that it would trigger its right under the lease to move the building entirely from the site within 90 days. The HPCA responded with a formal eviction. MCC President Patrick Meehan took to social media, vilifying the HPCA and remaining silent as residents publicly speculated that the MCC was being pushed out to make way for big Rantoul Street-like development. The February deadline to move the building came and went and the MCC continued business as usual, including a March 4 “Teddy Bear Tea” for area youth.
Then came the court dates. The MCC filed its defenses against the eviction and said it wanted to go to trial. It also countersued for $1.2 million.
The MCC, represented by Lynnfield attorney Michael Walsh, had offered a wide-ranging series of arguments going into Friday for why it shouldn’t be held to the commercial lease it signed.
Walsh’s biggest argument was that the MCC effectively owns the land it sits on—either through adverse possession, or due to easements. And if the MCC signed multiple leases over several decades, he argued, it did so because the MCC’s board was intimidated or hoodwinked by Harbor’s Point; or they simply didn’t understand what they were signing.
The HPCA, represented by Brookline attorney Grant Hecht, asked the court to eliminate the MCC’s arguments because they were factually wrong, or irrelevant, or frivolous. Hecht offered a package of evidence, including the original 1976 deed gifting of the building to the MCC, signed leases, and a list of witnesses supporting the HPCA’s case.
In the end, Judge Holly Broadbent clipped nearly all of the feathers of the MCC’s legal wings. The first series of arguments she denied addressed basic ownership of the land under the building. Walsh argued that the MCC owns it under a Massachusetts legal doctrine called “adverse possession,” in which a person in possession of land owned by someone else may acquire valid title to it if possessing that land went unchallenged for more than 20 years.
Broadbent pointed out that the MCC had signed several commercial leases over three decades. How could the MCC argue that it possessed land when it was also signing leases to rent it, she asked? Walsh’s argument was denied.
Then Walsh argued that the MCC had a permanent easement—either implied or actual—to access to the building, which meant that no one could make them vacate the property. Hecht responded by presenting the original notarized deed gifting the building in 1976 in which Means specified that his gift “did not (underline his) include the land.” Broadbent denied that argument too.
Then Walsh argued the MCC should benefit from relief within the MBTA’s permanent easement associated with the commuter railroad station next to the building. Hecht responded that the MBTA easement is for the MBTA, not the MCC. Broadbent agreed the argument was irrelevant.
Then Walsh argued that the four leases signed by the MCC over 30 years were executed under duress, or because of fraud by HPCA, or because its directors didn’t know what they were signing. The judge pointed out that the MCC had legal representation when they signed the leases, which protected them from fraud or even their own ignorance.
She asked Walsh what evidence he had to support any of the MCC’s arguments. Any affidavits from witnesses alleging fraud? Legal documents or deeds? Any previous filings?
Walsh said he had filed none but said he planned to submit some newspaper articles from the 1970s and a witness, Manchester resident Kevin Leach, who was prepared to offer “one or two sentences” about opposing an MCC-related article at the 1975 Manchester Town Meeting.
“This is nonsense,” said Judge Broadbent. “There is no evidence. That’s the fact.”
Broadbent moved onto the fees triggered by the MCC staying beyond the lease termination, which escalated from $100/day for the first 30 days to $500 every day after. Walsh said so far, the MCC has incurred approximately $25,000. Separately, if it loses at trial, its lease calls for the MCC to pay HPCA’s attorneys fees, which the judge seemed open to limiting.
Asked about whether negotiations might thwart a costly trial, Hecht told the judge that talks ended the week before. The MCC wanted $1 million to vacate the property.
According to its last public IRS filing, the MCC listed $177,000 in assets.
As of Wednesday, there was no word on whether Friday’s events triggered any discussion between the fighting parties.
Barring any change in direction or compromise, the MCC and the HPCA are headed for a jury trial in Salem on April 3
