Here is the School Committee’s original answer to the suit brought by the Feoffees, as well as their counterclaim and related exhibits.
Probate – SC – 091230 – Answer and Counterclaim
Probate – SC – 091230 – Trust Summary – Exhibit A
Probate – SC – 091230 – Trust Administration Order – Exhibit B
This is the settlement agreement for the Superior Court case, where the Feoffees agree to sell Little Neck to the tenants for $29.1 million if they can get approval from the Probate Court to break William Paine’s will. The Feoffees also get immunity from the claims of the tenants. The Feoffees signed the agreement without consulting the School Committee, and it requires them to pursue the litigation in Probate Court even if the School Committee opposes it. It also meant that the tenants no longer had any skin in the game; all the legal fees to achieve the goals of the tenants and the Feoffees would be paid by the schoolchildren of Ipswich.
Superior – Feoffees – 091223 – Settlement Agreement Part 1
Superior – Feoffees – 091223 – Settlement Agreement Part 2
Superior – Feoffees – 091223 – Settlement Agreement Part 3
Part of this filing shows the prices each tenant will pay for their unit (lot + common area privileges). You can find an analysis of these prices compared to appraised values here.
On this date, the Feoffees sued the School Committee in an effort to get permission to sell Little Neck to the tenants. This is the filing that got the ball rolling in Probate Court.
Probate – Feoffees – 091217 – FirstAmendedComplaint
These are the Feoffees written comments following the hearing before the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government.
Here is a transcript of the testimony from the first time the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government heard the home rule petition to reform the governance of the Feoffees.
The School Committee begins its long, slow, tortured caving in, with the encouragement of their lawyer.
Other – SC – 081111 – Executive Session Minutes
These are actually minutes for the Working Group of the Feoffees. The most fascinating thing about this is that for all the talk about how “impossible” it was the come to terms with the tenants, the differences reported in these minutes are just not that great. And when you add the fact that the tenants were willing to pay for the wastewater system (they are paying for none of it in the current settlement) the rents are not that far from market. Even without taking into consideration the significant advantages of retaining the seasonality of Little Neck, the rental arrangement described here would be superior financially to the current settlement and would have stopped all litigation at that point.
Ipswich Citizens for Public Trust 