Rockport Schooner Co. v. Rockport Whale Watch Corp.

The plaintiff-landlord filed a summary process action in the Gloucester District Court, seeking to recover possession of property located in Rockport. Following a trial, judgment entered for the defendant-tenant. The landlord appealed to the Superior Court, which affirmed. In a memorandum of decision, the Superior Court judge held that the landlord’s fourteen-day notice to quit for nonpayment of rent was invalid because the notice was “ambiguous as to the tenant’s right to cure.”

The parties had entered into a five-year commercial lease, commencing March 1, 1998, and requiring rent payments…