Argiro ordered to replace torn-up street
Published on October 25th, 2006
STONEHAM, MA - A Massachusetts Land Court judge recently ordered former Building Inspector Eugene Argiro to reinstall the entrance to a roadway off of South Street that he seized while developing a new home.
Permitting a neighborhood motion for a preliminary injunction, Land Court Judge J. Long ruled that the Hall Road resident must reinstall the portion of what he called, "New South Street", until formal court proceedings in the civil case decide on the matter once and for all.
"Mr. Argiro is hereby ordered to restore the portion of New South Street that crosses his land to its original location [and] in its original paved condition pending further order of the court," Long declared in his decision.
Reached earlier this week, Argiro declined to comment on the injunction, referring The Stoneham Independent to his attorney, John McNaught, Jr., of Melrose's McNaught, Cecere & McNaught P.C. McNaught couldn't be reached by deadline.
At the outset of this month, a group of ten South Street residents, whose homes are situated on an access road running parallel to the busy roadway, filed suit against the former Building Inspector for closing off the "New South Street" entrance in order to build a 3,740 square foot home.
Argiro has maintained that the entrance-way encroached upon the property he purchased last spring at 52 South Street, and that he needed that land in order to construct the new four-bedroom residence.
Officials from the Mass Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), which owns the "New South Street" access road itself, have agreed with Argiro's contention that the entrance was in fact put-down on his land.
Heralding the recent court action, the neighbors' attorney, Thomas Lawton of Woburn's Lawton and Lawton, believed that the South Street residents wouldn't be guaranteed the rights to the entrance until the litigation was formally settled.
According to Lawton despite the abutter's initial frustration with the silence from the state agency about Argiro's closure of the entrance, DCR has been extremely helpful since that time.
"We scored a victory. It's not over, but it was a significant victory," the former Woburn City Solicitor remarked.
"They agreed to some remedial measures while this lawsuit is pending," Lawton added, referring to a roundabout recently installed along the access road. "Some recognition should go out to DCR, which has helped the neighbors out."
While Lawton stopped short of declaring the recent land-court ruling as the end of the neighborhood dispute, the judge did characterize the South Street residents as extremely likely to prevail during formal court proceedings.
Specifically, Long referred to his belief that even though Argiro does in fact own the land in question, the continued-use of the entrance way by neighbors for at least 32-unbroken years has likely resulted in a "prescriptive easement".
"A prescriptive easement, which is the type at issue here, can be shown by the open, uninterrupted and adverse use, by the plaintiffs and/or their predecessors in title, of the claimed land, without the owner's permission, for a period of at least twenty years," the judge explained.
"He knew that South Street was there," Long said of Argiro. "It is his land, to be sure, but he may not use it in a way that interferes with the easement owners' right of use - something he surely knew as the town's former building inspector."
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