No. In a September 2026 decision, the Appeals Court affirmed a $355,645.77 judgment for a restaurant tenant whose landlord locked it out before the lease ended without going to court. The trial judge had found a knowing and willful violation of the consumer protection law and awarded double damages plus attorney’s fees. This is an unpublished Appeals Court decision under Rule 23.0, which courts may cite as persuasive but not as binding precedent.
What happened
The tenant ran a seafood restaurant in Quincy under a commercial lease that ran through May 31, 2018. The lease required the tenant to remove its trade fixtures and personal property when the lease ended. The landlord served a 30-day notice to quit but never filed a summary process case. At 11:00 P.M. on May 30, 2018, the day before the lease expired, one of the landlords and her attorney came to the restaurant and told everyone to leave. When the manager objected that they needed the remaining time to remove their property, the police were called. The next day the doors were locked, the electricity was later disconnected, and the tenant could not get in for some time. The sea life in the restaurant’s aquarium died, food spoiled, and much of the equipment was damaged or ruined.
What the court decided
In Min Du Restaurant, Inc. v. Yue Hwa LLC, No. 25-P-464 (Mass. App. Ct. September 30, 2026) (Rule 23.0 decision), the Appeals Court affirmed the judgment for the tenant.
Massachusetts law says no one may try to recover possession of land or buildings except through a summary process case or another proceeding the law allows. G.L. c. 184, § 18; G.L. c. 239, § 1. The lease here had a clause letting the landlord retake the premises without summary process after a default. The court called that provision illegal. On appeal, the landlord did not dispute that it unlawfully locked the tenant out before the lease expired.
Instead, the landlord argued that the lockout caused no damages, because the tenant had not yet pulled the city permits needed to remove its kitchen equipment. The court rejected that argument. The tenant had hired a licensed contractor to remove everything on May 31, and it forfeited its $5,000 cash deposit to that contractor because of the lockout. The landlord called no witness from the contractor or the city. Any claim that permits could not have been obtained that day was, the court said, speculative.
Under G.L. c. 93A, § 11, a business harmed by a willful or knowing unfair practice recovers two to three times its actual damages, plus reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. The court did not review the landlord’s challenge to the fee award, because the landlord left the hearing transcript and the billing records out of the record on appeal. An appellant must include in the record appendix the documents its arguments rely on. Chokel v. Genzyme Corp., 449 Mass. 272, 279 (2007). The court also held that the landlord’s attack on the early court order requiring it to give the tenant access to remove its property was moot, since the tenant had removed its property and final judgment had entered. The court allowed the tenant’s request for its appellate attorney’s fees too.
What this means for you
If you rent commercial space, Massachusetts law requires your landlord to go to court to remove you. A lease clause that allows self help eviction does not make a lockout legal.
A lockout can be very expensive for the landlord. Here the landlord faced damages for ruined property and a lost deposit, doubled under c. 93A, plus the tenant’s lawyer fees at trial and on appeal. A judge also found the landlord in contempt for not complying with the order to give the tenant access.
Two more lessons stand out. First, keep proof of your losses: contracts, deposits, inventory and photos. The tenant’s contractor deposit was concrete evidence of harm. Second, the last days of a lease still count. The landlord locked this tenant out one day early, and that day mattered.
What to do now
- If you are locked out, do not break back in. Call a lawyer right away about an emergency court order to restore access.
- Photograph the locked doors, any notices, and anything you can see inside. Write down dates, times and who was there.
- Gather your lease, any notice to quit, and records of your equipment, inventory and contracts, including deposits you may lose.
- Keep a running list of every loss: spoiled goods, damaged equipment, lost business and extra costs.
- If you are taking or defending an appeal, make sure every transcript and document you rely on goes into the record appendix.
If this is your situation, call Doubleday Law at (617) 575-2006 or tell us what happened. These cases move on short deadlines.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
