Doyle v. Commonwealth

This case concerns the authority of a Land Court judge to examine the validity of a previously issued certificate of title to registered land. In 1992, the plaintiff JoDee C. Doyle, trustee of Four Ninety-Four NEB Realty Trust (trust), acquired from Salisbury Beach Associates an oceanfront parcel of registered land in Salisbury, depicted on a 1920 plan as a “paper street.” The trust obtained a transfer certificate of title from an assistant recorder in the Essex South District registry of deeds. After the chief title examiner for the Land Court informed the trust that the certificate should…