RUSSELL & ASSOCIATES, LLC v. ROBERT V. WALLACE, JR., as Trustee of the BD LENDING TRUST, DESERT PINE, LLC, a/k/a Desert Palm, LLC, and/or, alternatively, DESERT PALM, LLC, of Currently Unknown Origin, RFF FAMILY PARTNERSHIP, LP, THE TOWN OF SAUGUS, PITT PIPELINE COMPANY, INC., and GEORGE BENJAMIN CONLEY, as Executor of the Will of Elizabeth Conley, deceased and LINK DEVELOPMENT, LLC, PETER F. RUSSELL, ESQ., SHOPS AT SAUGUS, and CARUSO MUSIC COMPANY.

The Plaintiff law firm, Russell & Associates, LLC (“Russell”), filed its Verified Complaint in this action on March 25, 2010, seeking declarations as to the priority of certain liens it claimed to hold on the real property known and numbered as 1040 Broadway (Route 1 North) in Saugus, Massachusetts (“the Property”). The Property, which was once owned by Interested Party Link Development, LLC, is approximately 23 acres in size and includes one registered parcel and three unregistered parcels.

At the time Russell commenced this lawsuit, Russell and Defendant RFF Family Partnership, LP (“RFF”) both held mortgages granted by Link on the Property. [Note 1] In addition to Russell’s claim to hold a first priority attorney’s lien on the Property, [Note 2] the Verified Complaint sought declaratory judgment that the mortgage on the registered parcel given by Link to Defendant Desert Pine, LLC, a/k/a Desert Palm, LLC (“Desert Pine”) and later assigned to Russell (the “Desert Palm Mortgage”), was in first position priority against the registered parcel. RFF, among other defenses, claimed that Desert Pine expressly subordinated the Desert Palm Mortgage to RFF’s mortgage. Counsel for the two active parties remaining in this case, Russell and RFF, have since represented to the court that the sole remaining controversy in the instant case centers on the relative priorities of the mortgage liens Link granted to RFF and Desert Pine on the registered parcel.

Defendant RFF filed its Motion for Summary Judgment on April 16, 2014. Russell filed its Opposition to RFF’s Motion for Summary Judgment on June 2, 2014. A hearing on RFF’s Motion for Summary Judgment was conducted on February 23, 2015.

By Summary Judgment Decision issued July 20, 2016, as set forth more fully therein, this court granted summary judgment to RFF. In accordance with that Decision, it is hereby:

ORDERED, ADJUDGED, and DECLARED that Desert Pine is not entitled to invoke the protections of the registration statute, G.L. c. 185, § 46, to claim that the Desert Palm Mortgage is a valid first lien on the registered parcel.

ORDERED, ADJUDGED, and DECLARED that Desert Pine may not enforce the Desert Palm Mortgage as a lien on the registered parcel beyond any surplus proceeds of the foreclosure of RFF’s mortgage. [Note 3]

SO ORDERED.