In the summer of 2022, the Boston Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP) asked if the firm could represent a family of four facing eviction in just three weeks' time on a pro bono basis. The family faced unique difficulties: one of the parents was recovering from a severe heart attack, requiring around-the-clock care by a medical aide, and one of the children has severe developmental difficulties. The family had a default judgment already entered against them, and their Rule 60 motion to set aside the default (1) had been filed 10 months after judgment was entered; and (2) did not provide much of an explanation why they had failed to appear at trial. The family also had made comments on the record at a two-hour long hearing that, the trial court found, indicated that they had settled the case and had waived appellate rights.
The firm filed a stay pending appeal. The initial stay application was denied, only days before eviction. Then, the firm filed a motion for reconsideration and prevailed, getting a stay of eviction pending appeal less than 24 hours before eviction was to take place. That preliminary victory kept the family housed for the last 18 months. On March 4, 2024, the Massachusetts Appeals Court issued a unanimous opinion reversing the housing court's issuance of the writ of execution (the eviction order) on the grounds that it had not been timely issued under the statutory three-month deadline for obtaining execution. This means that the landlord now cannot evict our client without bringing an entirely new action.
The issue about the timeliness of eviction orders has been bedeviling tenants and legal aid groups for the last three decades, evading appellate review. The Appeals Court fully adopted the firm's textual, structural, and historical arguments in favor of this reading of the Massachusetts housing law and agreed with the firm, on clear error review, that the tenants had not waived their right to appeal. This decision has already received significant attention in the world of Massachusetts housing law. At the time of decision, at least two pending appellate cases were already leveraging our result to get their eviction orders stayed pending appeal.
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