After a six day trial in Newburyport Superior Court, Attorneys Gregg Corbo and Jeffrey Blake successfully defended the Town of Essex against claims for compensation based on allegations that Town officials fraudulently induced tenants to build cottages on Town-owned land. The plaintiffs were a group of tenants who occupy portions of Town-owned property in a waterfront area known as “Conomo Point.” Although the Town leased the property to the tenants at nominal rents for many years, they claimed the Town owed them compensation for the value of the cottages at the end of these leases, on a theory that the Town misled them into believing their leases would be forever renewed. The Court sided with the Town and found the sole remedy available to each tenant is the right to remove the cottage at the end of the lease, but only if the cottage is not attached to the Town’s land. In the latter case, the Court ruled that the tenants are entitled to nothing. With over 100 expiring leases at issue, the efforts of Attorneys Corbo and Blake assisted the Town in avoiding more than one million dollars in liability.
