Devine v. Town of Nantucket

George R. Stimpson, an owner of land on Nantucket, failed to pay his real estate taxes in 1896, and the town acquired title to seven lots (containing fifteen and a half acres) through a tax sale in 1898. Eighty-two years later, in 1980, Devine and Darman paid $200 to Stimpson’s heirs for a quitclaim deed of those lots 3 and brought an action in the Land Court asserting flaws in the tax sale and their consequent right to redeem the title. We affirm the Land Court’s denial of relief, substantially for the reasons stated in a careful and comprehensive decision filed by the Land Court judge.

Under…