Devine’s Probate team recently received an Order from the Probate Division, Judge Quigley, which provided a positive outcome for its client. The Order stems from a petition to partition real estate that was originally decided on June 24, 2015. In the original partition, two brothers who owned a working family farm were ordered to take the necessary steps to obtain a surveyor, obtain permission from the town to subdivide the property, and transfer the divided property between the parties. In October of 2015, this case was brought back to the Court’s attention when communications between the two brothers broke down. The Court originally decided against our client, one of the brothers, in a default judgment, solely because he mistakenly did not appear in court.
Attorney Ron Caron was successful in vacating the default judgment and securing a favorable decision for our client. Our client, one of the brothers, is the primary owner and manager of the working family farm and runs a wedding business on the property. His brother, the petitioner, was seeking additional frontage from our client’s designated lot to build a home. Both brothers argued that the other was interfering with their use of the farm property. The Court found that our client’s use of the land was appropriate because it helped to maintain the working farm. The Court also found that his brother was inappropriately interfering with the commercial use of the property.
The Court Order favored our client’s proposed division of the land and found that the brothers should prorate the outstanding tax payment responsibilities based on our client’s overpayment of his share of the property tax. The brother was allowed to continue occupying the duplex that remained on our client’s land but his occupancy is subject to conditions and a newly stipulated rent. Finally, our client was given the ability to designate where his brother must relocate his personal vehicles and property so as to not interfere with commercial businesses on the inherited farm land.
