Moat v. Ducharme

When their long-term relationship evolved from meaningful to just plain mean, Phyllis K. Moat and William Ducharme sued one another in the Superior Court. A judge of that court, sitting without jury, adroitly sorted out and decided various claims of conversion, embezzlement, battery, and abuse of process. Amidst the vituperation was a claim by Moat that Ducharme’s physical abuse had resulted in her being constructively deprived of the use of their jointly owned residence in Northampton; she also sought partition of that residential property. The Superior Court judge correctly ruled that…