On September 12, 2022, the Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) issued a decision addressing whether its COVID-19 orders tolled the time period under the Mechanic’s Lien statute for a lien claimant to record a notice of contract at the Registry of Deeds. As you may recall, in response to the pandemic, the SJC had issued a series of orders with respect to court proceedings, new filings, and trials. Among other things, the orders “tolled all civil statutes of limitations.”

In this case, a lien claimant had timely recorded a notice of contract, but the notice of contract did not properly identify the property or the property owner. The lien claimant attempted to cure this issue by subsequently recording an amended notice of contract, but by then, the statutory deadline for recording the notice of contract at the Registry of Deeds had passed. As a result, the owner moved to dismiss the lien claim as untimely.

After reviewing the language of its COVID-19 orders, the SJC concluded that they did not operate to toll the statutory period for recording a notice of contract in the Registry of Deeds.    The Court explained that in issuing the orders, its aim was to provide guidance to lower courts on safe conduct amidst the pandemic, including reducing the number of people present in Massachusetts courthouses. As a result, the Court stated that its orders “concerned court operations only” and “did not apply to executive agencies such as the registry of deeds.”  According to the Court, the tolling provisions of its COVID-19 orders “must be read as tolling only those statutory deadlines that pertained to cases pending in court or to be filed in court.”