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Wellesley Conservation Land Trust touts appeals court victory

October 6, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The nonprofit Wellesley Conservation Land Trust is highlighting a Massachusetts Appeals Court decision that could result in the trust receiving monetary damages stemming from destruction of protected property by Wellesley landowners.

The Pembroke Road landowners several years back had more than 20 mature trees removed to make way for a lighted sports court on property they acquired adjacent to the land on which their home sits.

The landowners acknowledged violating the Wellesley conservation restriction, and wound up removing the court and planting saplings to offset the clear-cutting, according to an Appeals Court document from Aug. 10, when the case was decided.

The decision establishes new case precedent under which such a defendant may be required to pay damages in addition to restoring land.

The Wellesley Conservation Land Trust, formerly known as Wellesley Conservation Council, initially brought the case to the Superior Court in its role as enforcer of a restriction put on the land’s use by the previous owners in the 1970s. Such restrictions give property owners a tax break since they can’t develop the land.

“The purpose of the Wellesley Conservation Land Trust is the conservation of open space for the enjoyment and benefit of the public.  Incidental to this purpose is monitoring of property directed to the care of the Trust in accord with the terms of a  Conservation Restriction if the property is not owned by the Trust,” says Fred Fortmiller, president of the land trust. Violations are uncommon, he says, and are usually due to ignorance, not done with intent.

The trust appealed the Superior Court’s ruling that the property owner’s effort to undo its conservation restriction violation was compensation enough. Now the case goes back to the Superior Court where the plaintiff plans to seek monetary damages that would be used for further conservation efforts.

Wellesley Conservation Land Trust was supported in its legal efforts by  The Trustees of Reservations and the Massachusetts Land Trust Alliance.

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Filed Under: Environment, Law

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s 1998 Wellesley College speech: ‘The Supreme Court: A Place for Women’

September 19, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The late Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered the annual Wilson Lecture at Wellesley College in 1998, and titled it “The Supreme Court: A Place for Women.” That was five years after President Bill Clinton appointed her to the court.

WILSON LECTURE
“The Supreme Court: A Place for Women”
Delivered by
The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Associate Justice
The Supreme Court of the United States
at
Wellesley College
November 13, 1998
Two frontrunners are responsible for my visit this evening: Diana Chapman Walsh, Wellesley’s President, highly regarded in academic, medical and management circles, and celebrated, too, in the pages of Runner’s World, and Barbara Preiskel, a dear friend whose extraordinary service on Fortune 500 boards is surpassed by just one thing – her devotion to making opportunities to aspire and achieve genuinely open to all people.

To gain an introduction to Wellesley, I watched in the company of my Court staff, a videotape called “Hillary’s Class,” a film made by a young woman I knew in her growing up years. It is a remarkable documentary of the way things were and an aid in thinking about the way things should be.

My talk tonight centers on the same themes—the way things were, are, and will be. The setting is the place I know best nowadays; the title, The Supreme Court: A Place for Women. Let me begin with a question Justice O’Connor and I are sometimes asked. Does it make any difference that you are there? Do women judges decide cases differently by virtue of being women? As a first response, I have several times quoted, as has Justice O’Connor, the words of Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Jeanne Coyne. In her experience, Justice Coyne said, “a wise old man and a wise old woman reach the same conclusion.”

And so they do. But it is also true, I am convinced, that women, like persons of different racial groups and ethnic origins, contribute to the United States judiciary what a fine jurist, the late Alvin B. Rubin of Louisiana, described as “a distinctive

[Read more…]

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Filed Under: Law, Wellesley College

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About that ‘Civil Rights Violated’ sign on Rte. 9 in Wellesley

July 29, 2020 by Bob Brown 1 Comment

We’ve had numerous inquiries in recent weeks about the hard-to-miss sign on Rte. 9 West near Cliff Road that reads “Civil Rights Violated Send Legal Help.”

civil rights worcester st The American flag-adorned sign is in front of a 13-room brick Colonial at 489 Worcester St., that according to town records, changed hands for $1 about 10 years ago in an intra-family transaction. The buyers of the home have passed away over the past 2 years, and now a civil dispute involving surviving family members is underway.

Wellesley Police are aware of the situation, having accompanied an attorney to the site who was attempting to take photos in relation to the civil action. The Norfolk County Sheriff has also visited the property to serve paperwork, as has a constable from the sheriff’s office, according to Wellesley Police.

While it’s clear at least one party in this dispute has called attention to the situation through the highly visible sign, we think it might be best to leave things here for now, given this is a family matter. We have not reached out to the family members.

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Filed Under: Law, Police, Real estate

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Thu 22

Ben Franklin, The Early Years: Wellesley Historical Society online lecture

April 22 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
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