JoanShear | 23 April, 2007 18:58
Question: Where can I find decisions of the Massachusetts Appellate Division? Are they binding on the Superior Court? Where can I get an authoritative statement that the Superior Court is not bound by Mass. App. Div. cases?
Answer: As you all know, a party to a lawsuit who believes that a matter of law (either substantive or procedural) was handled incorrectly at the trial court level is usually entitled to an appeal. In Massachusetts we have seven Trial Court Departments: the Boston Municipal Court, the District Court, the Housing Court, the Juvenile Court, the Probate and Family Court, the Superior Court, and the Land Court.
There are two appeals courts in Massachusetts, the Appeals Court and the Supreme Judicial Court. The SJC is the Commonwealth's highest appellate court. The Appeals Court is a court of general appellate jurisdiction. Most appeals from the several Departments of the Trial Court are entered initially in the Appeals Court; some are then transferred to the Supreme Judicial Court, but a majority will be decided by the Appeals Court. The Appeals Court also has jurisdiction over appeals from final decisions of two State agencies: the Appellate Tax Board and the Labor Relations Commission. Opinions of the SJC are found in the Massachusetts Reports and West’s North Eastern Reporter 1st & 2d. Opinions of the Appeals Court are found in Massachusetts Appeals Reports and West’s North Eastern Reporter 1st & 2d.
In addition to the SJC and the Appeals Court, there is an appellate division of each district court and of the Boston Municipal Court for the rehearing of matters of law arising in civil cases, in claims for compensation of victims of violent crimes, and in civil motor vehicle infractions. Any party to a cause brought in the municipal court of the city of Boston, or in any other district court, aggrieved by any ruling on a matter of law by a single justice, may, as of right, have the ruling reported for determination by the appellate division.
The decisions of the appellate division are found in Massachusetts Appellate Division Reports (Mass. App. Div.) and prior to that in Massachusetts Appellate Decisions (Mass. App. Dec.). These opinions are binding within the division from which they were issued and considered highly persuasive in the other District Courts. Decisions of the appellate division can also be appealed to the Massachusetts Appeals Court. Mass. Gen. L. Ch 231: Section 109. As there is no line of appeal from the Superior Court to the appellate division, these opinions are not binding on the Superior Courts, but may be considered persuasive.
This is all made a little more confusing because in some counties a district court judgment on a civil action, even one that has been to the appellate division, can be subject to retrial before a Superior Court jury. During this trial denovo nothing from the original trial is binding, and a whole new determination of facts and law occurs.
None of the books that discuss Massachusetts procedure seem to make this very clear, as far as I can tell. The patron was refereed to Neary, Handbook of Legal Research in Massachusetts, Martindale-Hubbell Directory of State Laws discussion of the Courts of Massachusetts, general treatises on Massachusetts procedure, and the General Laws themselves, to piece together his own argument why the Superior Court should not follow the Appellate Division opinion.
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