Thomas O. Moriarty

Principal

D: 781-817-4603
C: 617-429-9302
tmoriarty@mbmllc.com
V-Card

team

Tom is a founding member of the firm and chair of its Litigation Department and is widely regarded as one of the premier real estate litigators in the Commonwealth. Tom has vast experience in the areas of condominium construction defect and phasing litigation, both in the trial court and at the appellate court levels, and has litigated and argued several of the seminal appellate decisions in that arena. Tom appears in both state and federal court, representing clients in zoning and land use litigation, title disputes, prescriptive easement and adverse possession claims, beach rights and waterfront disputes, construction defect and transitional litigation, common area property disputes, condominium phasing and development matters.


Tom’s commitment to the real estate and common interest ownership industries extends beyond his representation of clients in those sectors. He served as 2010 President of the Real Estate Bar Association, is a past co-chair of REBA’s Litigation Section, the Residential Conveyancing Committee, the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee, and the Condominium Law & Practice Section and is a member of the organization’s Board of Directors and its Executive and Nominating Committees. He also served as REBA’s designee to the Joint Bar Committee on Judicial Nominations. In the condominium arena, Tom is actively involved in the Community Associations Institute nationally and regionally. He served as chair of the Massachusetts Legislative Action Committee from 2006 until 2011 and was a member of the Board of CAI New England from 2019 through 2021 and served as its President in 2021. He is also a member of CAI’s National Amicus Team. Recognized as an authority on condominium and real property litigation, Tom serves frequently as a faculty panelist for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education seminars and chairs the MCLE’s Annual Real Estate Conference. Recognized also as one of the Bay State’s outstanding attorneys, Tom has been named to Law & Politics’ list of Massachusetts Super Lawyers every year since 2005 and maintains an AV rating with Martindale Hubbell.



Education

  • ▪ University of Massachusetts at Amherst (1990)

  • ▪ Boston College, Law School (1992)

Professional Affiliations

  • ▪ Abstract Club (2014 – present; Executive Committee 2022 – present)

  • ▪ Massachusetts Bar Association – Member
  • ▪ Massachusetts Real Estate Bar Association – Co-chair, Litigation Committee (2007- 2008), Member, Board of Directors (2007-present), Treasurer (2008), President (2010), Executive Committee (2008-present), Co-chair, Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee (2011-2017), Co-chair, Residential Conveyancing Committee (2011- 2017), Co-chair, Condominium Law & Practice Section (2018-present)
  • ▪ Community Associations Institute – College of Community Association Lawyers – Board of Governors, Member, National Amicus Team (1995-present)
  • ▪ 2021 President, Community Associations Institute of New England; Chair – Legislative Action Committee (2006-2011), Board Member (2018-present), President-Elect (2020)
  • ▪ American Resort Development Association – Past Chair, New England Legislative Action Committee (2001-2002)

Admissions

  • ▪ Massachusetts

  • ▪ New Hampshire

  • ▪ Federal District Court, District of Massachusetts

  • ▪ First Circuit Court of Appeals

  • ▪ United States Court of Federal Claims

  • ▪ United States Court of Appeals (D.C. Cir.)

  • ▪ Supreme Court of the United States

Notable

  • ▪ Community Associations Institute – Award of Excellence in Government and Public Affairs – 2015, Award of Excellence in Government and Public Affairs – 1999-2000, Award of Excellence in Government and Public Affairs – 2007-2008
  • ▪ Law & Politics Massachusetts Super Lawyer – annually, since 2005
  • ▪ Boston Magazine – Top Appellate Lawyer, Boston and Metro area, annually since 2021
  • ▪ Boston College Law School – Jessup International Law Moot Court Team

Publications and Events

  • ▪ “Firearms in Communities” (Community Associations Institute – New England Chapter, 2023)
  • ▪ Chair, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc.’s Annual Real Estate Law Conference (2015-present)
  • ▪ Lecturer, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc.’s Annual Real Estate Law Conference on Condominiums: Subordination and Partial Releases of Prior Recorded Construction Loans (2023)
  • ▪ Lecturer, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc.’s Annual Real Estate Law Conference on Condominium Rule Making and Constitutional Limitations (2017)
  • ▪ Lecturer, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc.’s Annual Real Estate Law Conference on Condominium Phasing: The Myriad of Issues—and the Practical Solutions (2016)
  • ▪ Lecturer, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc.’s Annual Real Estate Law Conference (2012)
  • ▪ Co-author of Condominium Litigation (Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc. – 2007)
  • ▪ Lecturer at Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education seminar on “Condominium Litigation” (2007)
  • ▪ Lecturer at Massachusetts Real Estate Bar Association Spring Seminar – “The Shifting Sands of Massachusetts Beach Rights” (2006)
  • ▪ Lecturer at Community Associations Institute’s National Law Seminar on “Capital Improvements – What Are They and What Do You Do With Them” (2005)
  • ▪ Lecturer, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education seminar on “Real Estate Litigation”(2004 and 2005)
  • ▪ “Condominium Litigation: Practice Points” in Litigating Real Estate Disputes, (Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc., 2004)
  • ▪ “Marinelli v. Bd. of Appeals of Stoughton, Common Lot Protection Under Chapter 40A, Section 6” (Massachusetts Bar Association, Section Review, Vol. 6, No. 3, 2004)
  • ▪ Lecturer, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education seminar on “Resolving Complex Title Issues” – Condominiums (2003-2004)
  • ▪ “Daddario vs. Cape Cod Commission, a Look Ahead” (Land Planner Magazine, Vol. 6, Issue 2, Fall 1996)

Tom's representative matters include:


  • ▪ Succeeded in Land Court and in Appeals Court in extinguishing numerous instruments recorded by condominium declarant improperly seeking to unilaterally extend declarant’s phasing right and assume control of association. Kettle Brook Lofts, LLC, et al., v. Specht, et al., 100 Mass.App.Ct. 359 (2021). [Click here for Article: Lawyers Weekly, Vol. 50, Issue No. 43].
  • ▪ Prevailed in the First Circuit Court of Appeals in the matter of Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB v. Collart, 980 F.3d 210 (2020) obtaining a reversal of District Court’s grant of an equitable lien against party that inherited money from her father’s estate. [Click here for Article: Lawyers Weekly, Vol. 49, Issue No. 41].
  • ▪ Obtained reversal in the Appeals Court of a Land Court Judgment in the case of The Trustees of Beechwood Village Condominium Trust v. USAlliance Federal Credit Union, 95 Mass. App. 278 (2019) establishing, on a question of first impression, principal that a partial discharge of a unit from an unsubordinated mortgage on common area releases all the common area from that mortgage. [Click here for Article: Lawyers Weekly, Vol. 48, Issue 21].
  • ▪ Successfully represented a condominium association before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in the case of Drummer Boy Homes Association, Inc. v. Britton, 474 Mass. 17, in a case of first impression establishing that a condominium association may maintain multiple, contemporaneous priority liens in connection with filing successive actions to enforce a lien for unpaid common expense assessments. (2016) [Click here for Article: Lawyers Weekly, Vol. 45, Issue 15].
  • ▪ Achieved $12,250,000.00 settlement for luxury high-rise condominium in downtown Boston in a construction defect action for defective design of heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. [Click here for Article: Lawyers Weekly, Vol. 42, Issue. No. 23].
  • ▪ Successfully represented a condominium association in the trial court and before the Appeals Court and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in the matter of Wyman v. Ayer Properties, LLC, 469 Mass. 64, a construction defect action establishing new principle of law limiting the scope and application of the economic loss rule in connection with condominium association’s negligent design and construction claims. (2014) [Click here for Article: Lawyer’s Weekly, Vol. 42, Issue No. 51].

Tom’s published appellate decisions include: Daddario v. Cape Cod Commission, 425 Mass. 411 (1997); Brennan v. GTE, 150 F.3d 21 (1998); Town of Milford v. Boyd, 434 Mass. 754 (2001); Daddario v. Cape Cod Commission, 56 Mass.App.Ct. 764 (2002); Cumberland Farms Inc. v. Planning Board of Bourne; 56 Mass.App.Ct. 605 (2002); Queler v. Skowron, 438 Mass. 304 (2002); Marinelli v. Town of Stoughton, 440 Mass. 255 (2003); GPT-Acton, LLC v. Department of Environmental Protection, 64 Mass.App.Ct. 103 (2005); Cumberland Farms, Inc. v. Planning Bd. of Bourne, 67 Mass.App.Ct. 67 (2006); Lobisser Bldg. Corp. v.Planning Bd. of Bellingham, 454 Mass. 123 (2009); Czyoski v. Planning Bd. of Truro, 77 Mass.App.Ct. 151 (2010); Kelley v. Iantosca, 78 Mass.App.Ct. 147 (2010); Bd. of Mgrs. of Old Colony Vill. Condominium v. Preu, 80 Mass.App.Ct. 728 (2011); Wyman v. Ayer Properties, LLC, 469 Mass. 64 (2014); Union v. Bloomberg, 88 Mass.App.Ct. 671 (2015); Drummer Boy Homes Association, Inc. v. Carolyn P. Britton & another, 474 Mass. 17 (2016); Beechwood v. USAlliance Federal Credit Union, 95 Mass. App. Ct. 278 (2019); Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB v. Collart, 980 F.3d 210 (2020); Beechwood Village Condominium Trust v. USAlliance Federal Credit Union, 100 Mass.App.Ct. 192 (2021); Kettle Brook Lofts, LLC v. Specht, 100 Mass.App.Ct. 359 (2021)