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Brian King and Adam Zaiger on Massachusetts Superpriority Liens

View “Drummer Boy Makes Some Noise on Mass. Superpriority Liens.”

Adam Zaiger and Brian King wrote “Drummer Boy Makes Some Noise on Mass. Superpriority Liens,” in Real Estate Law360, where they discuss the MassachusettsSupreme Judicial Court’s recent groundbreaking decision in Drummer Boy Homes Association, Inc. V. Britton. In an unprecedented holding, the SJC found that the Massachusetts Condominium Act, Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 183A, permits a condominium association to file successive legal actions and thereby establish multiple contemporaneous liens on a condominium unit, each with a six-month period of “superpriority” over a previously recorded first mortgage.  The ruling overturned lower court decisions that limited a condominium association’s superpriority lien to one six-month period.  As a result, counsel in all jurisdictions must now carefully analyze and account for the implication of all superpriority lien statutory provisions, and not just the key terms upon which prior practice generally focused.