SJC could branch out from ‘Massachusetts Rule’
Leaves, sap and branches can rain down on you and your property from a neighbor’s tree, and there’s little you can do in the court of law.
But the state’s highest court is ready to take another look at what’s called the “Massachusetts Rule” — the legal chestnut that bars people from suing neighbors if their property is damaged by a healthy, overhanging tree.
“We hope the Supreme Judicial Court follows what other jurisdictions are doing,” said William F. Spallina, an attorney whose case the SJC agreed to hear. “Other courts have ruled that, to some degree, you can be sued for damages if your tree overhangs the neighbor’s yard.”
Spallina is representing Mary Shiel, who in 2015 filed suit against Keli Jo and John Rowell, her neighbors in Randolph. She argued that the Rowells’ tree is trespassing on her property and causing a private nuisance.
Quincy District Court Judge Mark S. Coven tossed the suit under the so-called Massachusetts Rule, according to court papers. But Spallina appealed, arguing that the rule had run its course.
“There seems to be a trend where other courts are explicitly rejecting the Massachusetts Rule,” he said. “When the Supreme Judicial Court upheld this rule in the ’80s, it said that there was no case to the contrary, but things have changed.”
Spallina cited cases in North Dakota and Hawaii, where the Massachusetts Rule was considered and rejected.
“We agree ... that the Massachusetts rule is ‘simple and certain,’” wrote former Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals Judge James S. Burns. “However, we question whether it is realistic and fair.”
An attorney representing the Rowells did not respond to multiple requests for comment yesterday.
As it stands, self-help is the only recourse when a neighbor’s tree starts encroaching on your property. Massachusetts law lets property owners cut limbs or branches from a tree that “invades” their property — even if there is no threat of property damage.
In his pitch to the SJC, Spallina said the solution “fosters a ‘law of the jungle’ mentality because self-help effectively replaces the law of orderly judicial process as the only way to adjust the rights and responsibilities of disputing neighbors.”