The Massachusetts Appeals Court held that a waterfront lot owner in a 1955 Bourne subdivision has an unrestricted express easement over every road shown on the plan and owns the fee to the center of the roads her lot abuts, so neighbors cannot block her use of them. But a “Beach Area” shown on the same plan gave her no rights, because there was not enough evidence that the original sellers intended to grant them. This is an unpublished Appeals Court decision under Rule 23.0, which courts may cite as persuasive but not as binding precedent.
What happened
In 1955 five developers bought land in Bourne, and the planning board approved a subdivision plan showing 13 lots, three roads, and an unnumbered lot marked “Beach Area.” In 1956 each developer or a spouse took one waterfront lot. Each deed granted an easement to use “the roads and ways shown on said plan” for customary road purposes, plus several utility and driveway easements, but said nothing about the Beach Area. The developers kept the Beach Area and other land as tenants in common. The plaintiff bought one lot through foreclosure in 2009 and used the Beach Area until 2018, when neighbors told her to stop and posted no trespassing signs. A Superior Court judge ruled she had no rights in the Beach Area and only limited rights in two of the roads.
What the court decided
The Appeals Court affirmed in part and vacated in part in Princiotta v. Davies, No. 23-P-1369 (Mass. App. Ct. May 28, 2025) (Rule 23.0 decision).
She owns part of the roads. Under the derelict fee statute, a deed to land abutting a way, public or private, includes the seller’s fee interest in that way unless the deed expressly says otherwise. G.L. c. 183, § 58. The statute applies whenever the land in fact fronts on the way, even if the deed describes the lot only by its plan number. Rowley v. Massachusetts Elec. Co., 438 Mass. 798 (2003). No deed reserved the roads, so she owns to the center of the two roads where her lot abuts them.
She can use all the roads. Her right to travel every road on the plan came from the express easement in the original 1956 deed, which passed to later owners. The other driveway and utility easements in the deed did not limit it. The neighbors could not block her use of any road on the plan, including the full length of the road that ends at the Beach Area.
No beach rights. When land is sold by reference to a plan, an easement over areas on the plan exists only if the parties clearly intended it, and the person claiming it must prove it. Reagan v. Brissey, 446 Mass. 452 (2006). The 1956 deed listed several express easements but left out the Beach Area. When a deed spells out some easements, that is evidence the omission of others was deliberate. Kitras v. Town of Aquinnah, 474 Mass. 132 (2016); Joyce v. Devaney, 322 Mass. 544 (1948). The plan also showed a solid line between the road and the Beach Area. The first owner of the lot was married to a developer who co-owned the beach, so the sellers reasonably could have seen no need to grant an easement. And her own use, starting more than 50 years after the deed, was too remote to show what the original parties intended.
What this means for you
A subdivision plan can promise less than it seems to. An open area labeled “beach,” “park” or “common” is not automatically yours to use. Courts look at your original deed, the plan, and the facts when the first lots were sold. If the first deeds listed specific easements and skipped the beach, a court may find the beach was never meant to be shared.
Roads are often different. If your chain of title includes an express easement over the roads shown on the plan, that right usually travels with the land even if later deeds do not repeat it. And if your lot fronts a private road, you may own part of the road itself.
Buying through foreclosure carries a special risk. Here the mortgage covered only the lot, not the shared land, so her beach claim rose or fell on the first deed.
What to do now
- Get the first deed out of the developer for your lot, not just your own deed, and read every easement it grants.
- Get a copy of the recorded plan and look closely at how roads meet common areas.
- Check whether your lot fronts any private road and whether earlier deeds reserved the fee in it.
- If neighbors post signs or block access, write down the dates and keep photos before deciding what to do.
If this is your situation, call Doubleday Law at (617) 575-2006 or tell us what happened. These cases move on short deadlines.
