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Mass. high court weighs limits of residents' right of first refusal in Crown Communities v. Pocasset Park
Summary
At oral argument, Crown Communities' counsel said the resident association failed to meet the Manufactured Housing Act's requirements (no mortgage commitment within 90 days, lack of a substantially equivalent offer, and unclear majority support), while the association and the attorney general urged remedies when a lis pendens makes financing infeasible.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments in Crown Communities LLC v. Pocasset Park Association, Inc., a case testing when residents may exercise a statutory right of first refusal to buy a manufactured-housing community.
Kenneth Leonetti, counsel for Crown Communities, told the court the association "failed to establish that it complied with all the requirements of the Manufactured Housing Act," including that it "failed to obtain a mortgage commitment within the statutory required 90 days" and did not provide reasonable evidence that a majority of resident-owners chose to exercise the right. Leonetti urged the court to enforce the statute's time limits and the requirement that residents submit a substantially equivalent offer.
The issue has proved thorny because litigation recorded a lis pendens after the association sued, and the parties disagree about whether that instrument excuses or tolls statutory deadlines. A justice asked whether a lis…
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