HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND RELEVANT DEED LANGUAGE

In or about 1929 the only farmhouse on Swett Hill Road (then Sweat Hill Road) burned down. Thereafter, the Town of Sterling abandoned Swett Hill Road as a public way. SEE https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter82/Section32A Rights to use that abandoned way thereafter, in the event of a dispute by or among other abutting land owners or users, would have been determined by ‘common law’ principles hashed out in a court action. Apparently no dispute ever arose and various individuals used that stretch of road as a ‘private way’ amicably. In the late 1940s the Town of Sterling re-established Swett Hill Road as a public way.

In the meantime, however, Howard and Bertha Hall, owners of a large tract of land along the southerly side of ‘abandoned’ Swett Hill Road, between it and East Waushacum Lake, hired William C. Roy, Civil Engineer, to draw a plan of lots, each lot being 75′ x 140′, to be laid out as a cottage sub-division with named streets, those being Hall Ave., Warren Ave., Foster Street, Allen Street, and Jenkins Street. That plan, named “Waushacum Park,” was completed and dated April 22, 1944. The Halls thereafter sold off “Waushacum Park” lots, some of which were consolidated by purchasers.

On May 19, 1945 the Halls conveyed four (4) consolidated “Waushacum Park” lots, as one parcel, to Carl and Gladys Rogers, by deed recorded at the Worcester District Registry of Deeds, Book 2955, Page 285. That land comprises the northeasterly corner of “Waushacum Park” where Warren Ave. and Jenkins Street terminate. Neither Warren Ave. nor Jenkins Street was ever graded or built and they remain “Waushacum Park” “paper streets.” The Rogers’ front yard bordered Jenkins Street. The southerly end of Jenkins Street joins the easterly segment of Hall Ave. The Rogers used an existing cart path from ‘abandoned’ Swett Hill Road, then a ‘private way,’ over land retained by the Halls, to their land, as a driveway, and Carl Rogers transported over it the building materials used to construct the Rogers’ cottage in 1945. That cart path was the driveway to the Rogers’ cottage, Jenkins Street and Warren Ave., both “paper streets” only, remaining as rough ground to this day. It is important to note that the cart path referred to led directly from Swett Hill Road to the northerly end of the plan-drawn “Jenkins Street.” From that point, on the ground, the cart path continued within the drawn plan boundaries of “Jenkins Street” downhill to Hall Ave. It is still visible.

The Rogers’ deed recites in pertinent part that: “The grantors [Halls] convey herewith the right to ingress and egress on foot or with vehicle to said [Rogers’] premises on Hall Avenue, Allen Street [also an unimproved, rough “paper street”], and Warren Avenue and to Kendall Hill Road insofar as the grantors have any rights thereto. The grantors also convey herewith the the right of ingress and egress to Jenkins Street” (emphasis added). Since Jenkins Street connects directly with the eastern segment of Hall Avenue, as drawn on the “Waushacum Park” plan, and the Rogers’ yard fronted on it, it is obvious that the Halls conveyed to the Rogers a right “of ingress and egress to Jenkins Street” over their land from Swett Hill Road. Otherwise, that deed conveyance language would be pointless and superfluous.

Since Swett Hill Road was still an ‘abandoned’ public way, and hence a ‘private way,’ in 1945, it is clear that the Halls intended, “insofar as [they had] any rights thereto,” to grant the Rogers a right of way out to and over Swett Hill Road and up to Kendall Hill Road, a Town of Sterling public way, the existing cart path/driveway being the shortest route from the Rogers’ cottage over the the Halls’ retained land to Swett Hill Road.

The deed language referred to hereinabove was set forth in the October 28, 1964 deed from Carl and Gladys Rogers to John W. Stevenson, recorded at the Worcester District Registry of Deeds, Book 4514, Page 29, and then in John W. Stevenson’s deed to Maryanne MacLeod, the current owner, dated January 29, 1970, recorded at the Worcester District Registry of Deeds, Book 5009, Page 237.

From 1945 until now the cart path/driveway referred to, whose northerly end is at Swett Hill Road, has been the exclusive and continuously used means of ingress to, and egress from, the Rogers-Stevenson-MacLeod home.

By deed dated April 27, 1972, recorded at the Worcester District Registry of Deeds, Book 5219, Page 433, Bertha Hall conveyed to the Town of Sterling the thirty-five (35) acre tract on the southerly side of Swett Hill Road, including the land over which Maryanne MacLeod’s driveway runs. That deed excepted all of Sholan Park conveyed to the Town in 1934, all “Waushacum Park” lots conveyed out previously by Howard and Bertha Hall, and some other parcels conveyed out previously by the Halls. Her deed specifically recited that the Town of Sterling took that tract “Subject to the rights and paper streets previously conveyed by grantor”(emphasis added). The May 4, 1973 deed from the Town of Sterling to the Town’s Conservation Commission, recorded at the Worcester District Registry of Deeds, Book 5335, Page 263, set forth the same language.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

It is “black letter law,” meaning universally known, that “subject to” means “Liable, subordinate, subservient, inferior, obedient to; governed…by….” Black’s Law Dictionary, (Revised 4th Ed., 1968)(emphasis added), citing American Mfg. Co. v. Commonwealth, 251 Mass. 329 (1925), and other cases. There are too many Massachusetts appellate court real property decisions discussing the term “subject to” to list here, but here is a good example: Canton Highlands, Inc. v. Searle, 9 Mass.App.Ct. 48 (1980). (http://masscases.com/cases/app/9/9massappct48.html )

The Halls did not reserve any rights to use the “Waushacum Park” “paper streets” and, so, Bertha Hall, in her 1972 deed to the Town, acknowledged that she and her husband had “conveyed” out those “paper streets” to the “Waushacum Park” lot buyers previously, those “paper Streets” being parts of the “Waushacum Park” sub-division. As a corollary, the Halls, in their deeds to “Waushacum Park” lot buyers, said this: “‘grantees’, their heirs or assigns agree to become co-operating associates in any association formed for the upkeep of [the “Waushacum Park” “paper streets”] while the same may be private ways”(emphasis added). Those “paper streets” have remained “private ways” to this day. The Halls, in other words, acknowledged that they retained no ownership rights in, and no maintenance obligations as to, the “Waushacum Park” “paper streets.” In view of the foregoing it is patently clear that the Town of Sterling has no rights whatsoever to use the “Waushacum Park” “paper streets” privately owned by others since the 1940s. See Boudreau et al. v. Coleman et al., 29 Mass.App.Ct. 621 (1990). ( http://masscases.com/cases/app/29/29massappct621.html )
Moreover, the Town took its land explicitly subject to Maryanne MacLeod’s “right of ingress and egress to Jenkins Street” from Swett Hill Road, and her related right of “ingress and egress on foot or with vehicle to …Kendall Hill Road.”

NOTE ON POSSIBLE DEED DRAFTING ERROR

Bertha Hall’s 1972 deed to the Town of Sterling recites that the tract in issue is on the “westerly side of Kendall Hill Road” and “run[s] by said Kendall Hill Road…Two Thousand Three Hundred and Seventy-Six (2,376) feet….” However, Sterling GIS online mapping shows that all of the land in issue is on the southwesterly side of Swett Hill Road. It appears that the deed contains a drafting error that was repeated in the Town of Sterling’s 1973 deed to the Sterling Conservation Commission.

SUMMARY AND CURRENT STATUS

Despite the foregoing operative facts and applicable law, the Town of Sterling, by its Select Board and Conservation Commission, has claimed, spuriously, since 1972, that Maryanne MacLeod has no legal right to use her driveway–which has been in continual use since 1945–and, further, that the Town has the right to use “Waushacum Park” “paper streets” for walking trails. In all my years as a lawyer I can say, truly, that these are the most egregiously dishonest, baseless, and contemptible false property claims that I have ever seen. The Town officials asserting them with straight faces are utterly despicable and should be regarded as such.

Maryanne MacLeod, former Conant Library assistant, unofficial Town historian, writer of successful grant applications for the Town and Town organizations, and fifty-one (51) year property tax payer, now elderly and legally blind, has been forced to hire a lawyer to vindicate her legal rights and has incurred thousands of dollars in legal fees to maintain the action Maryanne MacLeod vs. Town of Sterling et al., Worcester Superior Court Civil Action No. 1885CV01098.

The Select Board is now calling the shots on behalf of the Town in this litigation. In perpetrating and continuing this hoax they have demonstrated their utter shamelessness, as have certain Conservation Commission members heretofore.
They make all the rest of us look bad.

J.G.

NOTE: This article re-posted 29 April 2021 due to WordPress software glitches experienced this week.

During the May 2018 Annual Town Meeting voters approved Warrant Article 27 and the hiring of a Town Planner to prepare a new Town of Sterling Master Plan. That was the Select Board’s sole expressed purpose for such hiring. Note that I moved to limit the new Town Planner to a one (1) year term but my Motion was defeated by gullible persons present constituting a majority. They’re the voters who buy BS promulgated by the manipulators on the Select Board, the Finance Committee, and the Capital Budget Committee, and who stupidly vote to pick their own pockets multiple times during each Annual Town Meeting. Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr calls such herd creatures “sheeple.” They have overrun Massachusetts and now, to the detriment of ALL Sterling taxpayers, they predominate here. The new Town Planner’s salary was set at $73,469 to start, not counting other benefits.

In October 2018 Ms. Domenica Tatasciore was hired as the new Town Planner. In 2019 her salary increased to $74,203.56 (see page 68). The 2020 Sterling Annual Report, as of this writing, has not been posted on the Town’s website.

We’re thirty (30) months down the road and soon to be out $225,000 in Town Planner salary payments since Ms. Tatasciore’s hiring. Have you seen the new Town of Sterling Master Plan yet? Neither have I. Perhaps that’s because the Select Board has Ms. Tatasciore doing things such as ‘liaising’ with various Town boards and committees and taking on roles such as those found here: https://www.sterling-ma.gov/people/domenica-tatasciore

Those aren’t the reasons for which the 2018 Annual Town Meeting voters/taxpayers approved Warrant Article 27. In response to the Select Board’s express statements, they approved the new Town Planner position for the sole purpose of preparing a new Town Master Plan. But the Select Board enjoys having a $75,000/year taxpayer-funded ‘Gofer.’

Have you wondered how long it takes other Massachusetts towns to complete new Town Master Plans? I also. So I did a little checking. The Town of Sturbridge, right here in Worcester County, completed its new Master Plan in a mere fifteen months. The Town of Fairhaven’s Master Plan was completed in a year! That’s called competence, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, folks, traits discouraged by the poseurs occupying Sterling Select Board and Finance Committee seats.

So what’s up with the Town of Sterling Master Plan, you ask? Well, this: the Master Plan Committee announced an April 15, 2021 public meeting to “help set goals and actions for the Town’s Master Plan.” They are friggin’ joking, right??? EARTH to the MASTER PLAN COMMITTEE–“goals” and “actions” are established at the outset, NOT as after-thoughts thirty (30) months in . This is sheer and utter incompetence on display in the wide open. The so-called ‘Master Plan Committee’ are out in ‘Navel-Gazing Pond’ dog-paddling in circles.

There’s an old saying among unionized workers on Massachusetts so-called ‘public works projects’–“ya can’t kill the job”–meaning you mustn’t get the job done on time, on budget, because unionized jobbers make more money stringing out the work at taxpayer expense. We’ve all seen it in practice, including the Route I-190 bridge repair and road resurfacing projects that Massachusetts DOT announces will take one year but are still ongoing three years later. It is clear that Ms. Tatasciore and the Sterling Select Board are quite familiar and comfortable with this practice. Ms. Tatasciore, again in Howie Carr’s unforgettable terminology, is happily feeding from the Sterling-taxpayer-funded “public mammary gland,” courtesy of the Sterling Select board, with no end in sight.

Categorize all this under fraud, waste, abuse, unconscionable delay, utter incompetence, and the hosing of Sterling property tax payers who, in the words of the late H. L. Mencken, are getting it “good and hard.” But, hey, just watch the “sheeple” during the upcoming 14 June Annual Town Meeting. They never learn. They’ll vote, repeatedly, to give it to themselves–and rest of us who know better–“good and hard.” So vote “NO” when the municipal budget Warrant Article comes up. It is time to terminate this aimless spending nonsense.

J.G.