A fascinating land title dispute up in Massachusetts

A FWIW reader who for obvious reasons — he has to make a living in town —prefers to stay anonymous has sent along this story:

The man without a county: Judge rules man's island lighthouse isn't part of Hull, but stops short of saying where it does belong

It’s a lengthy article that is very much worth reading in its entirety but here’s a portion of it, to whet your appetite and to give you the context of the dispute:

A Land Court judge has ended a stormy dispute between Hull and the Malden man who bought Graves Light in Massachusetts Bay just beyond Boston Harbor: The lighthouse isn't in Hull, so its owner doesn't have to pay town property taxes or let town inspectors judge his work in converting the tower into a family vacation home.

But now the question becomes: If not Hull, where? In Massachusetts, unlike in other states, tradition and some legal precedent hold that all land has to belong to some city or town. But early on in the case, Boston, Winthrop and even Nahant all declared the lighthouse was not within their municipal boundaries.

In her ruling this week, however, Justice Diane Rubin was careful not to declare that David Waller's lighthouse - the top part of which remains in use as an automated beacon and foghorn - and its surrounding shoals are the only unincorporated pieces of land in the entire Commonwealth, part of neither Boston and Suffolk County nor Hull and Plymouth County.

Rubin said she did not have to rule in favor of Waller's argument that he owns ten acres, more or less, of unincorporated - often ocean-covered - land because the key issue in the case was simply whether his outcroppings were part of Hull. "Nor should that issue be decided without the Commonwealth and the City of Boston joined as parties to the case," she said, adding other communities near Hull might also want a say.

In making his case to get Hull to leave him alone, Waller argued that what he bought from the Coast Guard in 1993 for $934,000 was, in fact, a no man's land, subject to no municipality's taxation or official oversight and that other legal precedents supported his contention.

In his filings, Waller did not go as far as the family that started Sealand off the coast of England and argue that his shoaly domain is entire of itself; he concedes it is part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

In fact, his legal wrangling with Hull began after he sought permission in 2018 from state environmental officials to repair a pier at the lighthouse - beneath the 40-foot ladder that is the only way into the structure. State officials contacted Hull's Conservation Commission, which said it had no problems with the work, but the next year, the town assessors added Graves Ledge to its property rolls and began sending Waller tax bills, and then penalty notices when he refused to pay - and then warning that he cease what has become more than $1 million in renovation work without oversight by town inspectors.

In its filings, the town of Hull praised Waller for his extensive work in restoring a historically important lighthouse, but added:

Any operation done without proper authorization or permitting and inspections, could lead to lighthouse failure and/or an unnecessary risk posed to vessels operating in the boating lanes near The Graves, persons, the Plaintiff, including workman on the island, and as a result poses unnecessary risk to the municipalities within the [Boston Harbor] Recreation Area and the public at large.

In a bench trial that spanned several months and in her ruling, Rubin considered conflicting documents and maps dating all the way back to 1634, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony Court granted Peddocks Island to the inhabitants of "Charlton" (which she and the experts in the case believed meant the then town of Charlestown) for "one & twenty years for the yearly rent of twenty shillings" - unless somebody settled what was then the nearby peninsula of Natascett, in which case that place would get the island.

Sure enough, in 1641, the Massachusetts Bay Colony Court ordered the creation of a fishing settlement at Nantascot and decreed that "the Iland called Pedocks Iland & the other ilands there not otherwise disposed of, shall belong to Nantaskot, to bee to the use of the inhabitants & fisherman, so soone as they shall come to inhabite there." In 1644, the court renamed Nantaskot as Hull. In 1652, though, the colonial general court granted "all those small ilands lying within the bay betweene Allerton Poynt & Nahant, not hereto fore graunted" to Capt. John Leverett, who became a colonial military, political and business leader from Boston - despite his vigorous opposition to the religious repression then practiced in the colony.

But over the centuries, maps, surveyors and eventually even a Harbor and Lands Commission set up by the state Legislature could not agree whether Graves Ledge was part of what was renamed the town of Hull, Boston or some other place. Some maps showed it within Hull's borders, others showed it within Boston's.

In 1903, the issue disappeared when the state sold the outcroppings to the federal government, so the Coast Guard could build a lighthouse on it to guide ships into a newly enlarged channel into Boston Harbor. In the 1970s, the Coast Guard automated the light and the last keeper left. Then the Coast Guard decided to try to sell off the lighthouse and the surrounding shoals. It offered them to nearby communities first, but none wanted it, so in 2013, it put the lighthouse up for auction and Waller, also known for his collection of large neon signs, made the highest bid.

In addition to listening to surveyors on both sides and pouring through all those written records, Rubin - accompanied by lawyers for both sides and interns for the lawyers - went on a tour of the harbor in general, and the Graves site in particular, on the afternoon of June 13, 2022 ….