City of Boston v. Horne
City of Boston v. Horne
Opinion of the Court
Claiming nonpayment of interest on back taxes, the city of Boston in 1978 filed a petition in the Land Court under G. L. c. 60, § 65, to foreclose a tax lien on certain real property. A decision was entered in February, 1984, in which a Land Court judge found and ruled that the full amount due the city had been paid, and ordered that the proceeding be dismissed. The city has appealed from that decision.
In the Land Court the city, relying solely upon the terms of the memorandum, attempted to establish that the payment of interest on the defendant’s tax arrearages was a condition of the preservation of her right of redemption. The city claimed below, as it does here, that the taxpayer was in default because “the Memorandum clearly indicates the total amount due as of the day of the agreement and that interest from that day forward would be added to the total due.” The city admitted that “there were no explicit provisions to this effect in the Memorandum.”
We are mindful that one of the factors to be taken into consideration in construing such an agreement is the language of G. L. c. 60, § 62,
Judgment affirmed.
The trial judge found that the city “authorized its employee to enter into this contract” and did not “question! ] its legality.” He then ruled that the city “is deemed to have adopted it.”
The city made no challenge to the sufficiency of these payments in the trial court.
There are no provisions to that effect, explicit or otherwise. The only reference to interest appears in an earlier section of the agreement wherein it is provided that an initial payment by the taxpayer is “to be applied to unpaid Property taxes and interest and costs thereon” (emphasis in original).
General Laws c. 60, § 62, as amended through St. 1970, c. 235, § 1, states in relevant part: “Any person having an interest in land taken or sold for non-payment of taxes . . . may redeem the same by paying or tendering to [the] treasurer instalments on account of the tax title account. . . together with the full amount of interest, as aforesaid, to the date of payment of the amount of the tax title account . . . , and all charges lawfully added as aforesaid, until the full amount of the tax title account, with interest as aforesaid and all such charges, is paid” (emphasis added).
It reasonably can be implied from the judge’s decision that he found “the agreement to be a complete statement of the amount [the taxpayer] owed and that no further interest was due.”
The defendant in her brief correctly observes that a factual assertion in the city’s brief of “an outstanding tax title of $9,162.51” at the time the city and the taxpayer executed the agreement is nowhere supported on the pages of the record appendix cited by the city or by anything else in the appendix.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.