Nantucket Conservation Foundation, Inc. v. Russell Management, Inc.

At issue is whether G. L. c. 187, § 5,1 applies retrospectively so as to allow Russell Management, Inc. *213(Russell), to install underground utility lines beneath the surface of land owned by the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, Inc. As the owner of property (“Lot H”) on the island of Nantucket, Russell enjoys, by deed, an easement for ingress and egress along a fifty foot wide private way across the Foundation’s land. General Laws c. 187, § 5, provides, in part, that the “owner ... of real estate abutting on a private way who [has] by deed existing rights of ingress and egress upon such way .…