Mugar v. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

The plaintiffs are the owners, as trustees, of the land and buildings known as the Porter Square Shopping Center in Cambridge. In connection with the extension of its red line from Harvard Square to Alewife station, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) made eleven fee and easement takings by eminent domain, see *444G. L. c. 161 A, § 3(o), of parcels in and under the center’s parking lot. One of the fee takings was a 3,224 square foot area located near the center of the parking lot and designated for construction of a subway vent shaft. At issue in this appeal is the scope of a…