Massachusetts Property Owner’s Tax Foreclosure Suit Can Proceed

A former property owner convinced a Massachusetts federal court that his suit over the surplus proceeds from a tax foreclosure was timely because the case stems from the denial of those funds, not the date the town took over the property.

Before the US Supreme Court decided Tyler v. Hennepin County—which held that taxpayers have a constitutional right to surplus proceeds from tax foreclosure sales—the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that a taxpayer had no such right under state law as it existed at the time.

But the Massachusetts legislature amended the law in June 2024 to comply with ...