McDonnell v. Quirk

We conclude that a judge of the Probate Court erred in entering a judgment which purported to undo a Land Court decree of registration after a third party had acquired an interest in the locus. The judgment must be vacated. 2

The immediately relevant facts are undisputed. Upon a petition for registration of title dated June 22, 1973, the Land Court decreed on May 17, 1982, that a parcel of land off Willis Road in Sudbury stood in the name of Robert D. Quirk. Norma L. McDonnell, Quirk’s sister, timely received statutory notice of the registration proceeding.

Twenty-one months after the judgment…