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REARDON & THOMAS ATTORNEYS AT LAW CORNER OF BEARSE'S WAY AND BASSETT LANE POST Oi FICE BOX 978 JOSEPH J. RHARDON 1-IYANNIS, iAASSACHUBETTS 02601 WILLIAM W. THOMAS 16171 771.4644 ORLEANS OFFICE BRADLEY J. BAILEY ADDRESS ALL CORRESPONDENCE TO HYANNIS ADDRESS 45 SOUTH ORLEANS ROAD LHB LIE•ANN MORSE ROUTE 28 o May 15, 1905 ORLEANS, MASS. 026S3 16171 253.3125 Manuel Costa, Chairman Board of Appeals Town of Mashpee P. O. Box 1108 Mashpee, MA 02649 Dear Mr. Costa: - ------ -If you will recall, several weeks ago you had your secretary, Pat White, inquire of me as to the effect of the Board failing to file its decision with the office of the Town Clerk within 14 days of the decision, even though the same was recorded within 90 days of the date of the hearing on the Special Permit application in accordance with Chapter 40A, Section 9. At that time, I told Pat that I was quite sure that the failure was not fatal to the decision as I believed it to be an administrative error, procedural in nature, and not having any substantive effect on the decision itself or its validity in view of the fact that it had been filed within 90 days of the hearing. It is always a pleasure for an attorney to find authority in support of an opinion advanced in the absence of any case law. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in the case of Zukerman v. "Zoning Board of Appeals has decided this issue. The derision appeared In the May 6th issue of Mass. Lawyers Weekly. The Court stated, in deciding a case where a variance was not filed with the office of the Town Clerk within 14 days of the decision, but was filed within 75 days of the date of filing the appeal, that the 14 day requirement is "directory only". The Court went on to say that "because the board (in this case) filed its decision on the applicant's playground 74 days after the appeal was filed, there was no constructive grant of the relief sought." The Court went on to agree with the Superior Court Trial Judge who had held that the Zoning Board of Appeals did not constructively grant the relief sought by the applicant because it failed to file its decision with the Town Clerk within 14 days. Please do not construe this letter as a license to fail to comply with the provision of Chapter 40A, Section 15 requiring a copy of your decision to be filed within 14 days in the office of the Town Clerk. Your Board must make every effort to obey this statutory mandate. `Yours,Very 1y, Joseph J. Re don iMashpee Town unsel JJR:ss Fi