## Facts

- A mother’s will devised a Chatham, Massachusetts family property to her son, Robert L. Walsh, for life, with the remainder to the heirs of Walsh, Elizabeth Gay Matteson, and their sister, Catherine T. Baisly.
- Walsh lived on the property and rented units, collecting and keeping the rents.
- Around 2004, Walsh stopped paying real estate taxes and water bills, resulting in a recorded notice of tax taking.
- Walsh also stopped maintaining the buildings, which then suffered severe and substantial deterioration.
- Matteson and Baisly paid delinquent taxes to address the tax-taking risk; Walsh repaid part of the first payment but did not reimburse later tax payments.
- Matteson paid additional taxes, water bills, and significant repair and maintenance costs to address the deterioration.
- Matteson, as a remainderman, brought a statutory action for waste against Walsh as life tenant under Massachusetts law.

## Issues

1. Whether a life tenant commits actionable waste by failing to pay property taxes and failing to maintain the premises when that conduct endangers or injures the remainder interests.
2. Whether a court remedy for waste may terminate the life estate and then reconstitute title in a new fee-simple tenancy in common that includes the former life tenant, rather than allowing the property to pass under the will.

## Decision

- The court affirmed the finding of waste based on Walsh’s failure to pay taxes to the point of a recorded tax-taking and his severe neglect causing substantial deterioration.
- The court affirmed the money judgment awarding Matteson approximately \$65,000 for taxes paid and repair costs.
- The court affirmed the termination of Walsh’s life estate as an available remedy for serious waste.
- The court reversed the portion of the judgment that granted Walsh a fee interest as a tenant in common after termination of the life estate.
- The case was remanded for entry of judgment consistent with the will, including proceedings to determine the identity of Walsh’s heirs for purposes of the remainder.

## Legal Principles

- Under G.L. c. 242, § 1, a life tenant may be liable for waste based on acts or omissions that endanger or injure the future interest.
- A life tenant’s failure to pay real estate taxes to the point of a recorded tax-taking may constitute waste because it jeopardizes the remaindermen’s interest, even absent completed loss of title.
- Severe and substantial deterioration caused by a life tenant’s failure to maintain the premises may constitute waste under the waste statute; liability is not limited to affirmative or “voluntary” waste.
- A court may terminate a life estate as a remedy for serious waste, in addition to awarding damages.
- After termination of a life estate for waste, the property must pass according to the instrument creating the estate; a court may not alter the remainder by granting the former life tenant a new fee interest in place of his heirs.

## Conclusion

The court held that a life tenant committed statutory waste by allowing taxes to go unpaid to the point of tax-taking risk and by neglecting maintenance resulting in substantial deterioration; it upheld damages and termination of the life estate but required the remainder to pass as devised rather than being converted into a new tenancy in common including the former life tenant.


Matteson v. Walsh, 79 Mass. App. Ct. 402, 947 N.E.2d 44 (2011)