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DRAFT FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW — NOT FINAL

Youghal, LLC v. Entwistle (2020)

Citation
Youghal, LLC v. Entwistle (2020)
Parent Document
Youghal, LLC v. Entwistle (2020)
Jurisdiction
Massachusetts (state)
Effective Date
2020-03-23

Full Text

1,191 chars
General Laws c. 186, § 11, provides that a fourteen day
notice to quit be "given in writing to the tenant" to
"determine" the lease. See Adjartey v. Central Div. of the
Housing Court Dep't, 481 Mass. 830, 851 (2019). "Once the
deadline stated in the notice to quit has passed, the landlord
may serve his or her tenant" with a summary process summons and
complaint to recover possession of the premises. Id. at 852,
860. See Hodgkins v. Price, 137 Mass. 13, 18 (1884). See also
Rule 2(b) of the Uniform Summary Process Rules (1993). It is
the landlord's burden to "show that [it] gave a notice which
complied with the statute. The statute does not proscribe how
notice is to be given." See Ryan v. Sylvester, 358 Mass. 18, 19
(1970). It is nonetheless evident that a notice taped to a door
is not "given to the tenant," until the tenant receives actual
or constructive notice of it. See id., citing cases. In this
case, the evidence at trial did not establish delivery of the
notice until June 7, 2017, when one tenant testified she
received it. Because the summary process proceeding was
commenced before the full fourteen-day deadline had come and
gone, judgment must enter for the tenants.