Laurin v. DeCarolis Construction Co., Inc., 372 Mass. 688, 363 N.E.2d 675 (1977)
Legal information, not legal advice. Verify against the cited opinion.
- Citation: Laurin v. DeCarolis Construction Co., Inc., 372 Mass. 688, 363 N.E.2d 675 (1977).
- Court / Year: Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, 1977.
- Topic tags: equitable_interest | equitable_conversion | waste
- Facts: The Laurins signed a purchase and sale agreement to buy a parcel and a single-family dwelling from DeCarolis on March 8, 1971; the deed was delivered September 21, 1971. After the agreement but before the conveyance, the vendor (DeCarolis), who retained legal title and possession, removed loam, gravel, trees, and shrubs from the property without the buyers’ consent and over their express objection (except as needed for construction). The buyers sued for the value of the materials removed.
- Holding: Once a binding purchase and sale agreement is executed, the vendor holds legal title “subject to an equitable obligation to convey” the property to the purchaser on payment of the price; from that equitable obligation flows the vendor’s duty not to commit waste or strip value from the land pending conveyance, and the vendor is liable to the buyer for the fair market value of the gravel and other materials wrongfully removed. The Court treated the claim as one for breach of contract, not conversion, and remanded for recomputation of damages (the award should reflect the value of the gravel as it lay in the land, not enhanced by the vendor’s labor in extracting and loading it). Note on framing: the SJC recited that the master found the buyers to be “equitable owners,” but the Court’s own statement of law is more guarded — it described the vendor as holding legal title subject to an equitable obligation to convey and characterized the purchaser’s rights as contract rights rather than rights of ownership of real property. The protectable interest is real, but the opinion grounds it in the vendor’s equitable duty, not in a flat declaration that the buyer owns the land in equity.
- Reasoning: The executed purchase agreement leaves the vendor holding legal title subject to an equitable obligation to convey; the vendor may not diminish the value of the thing the buyer has contracted to receive, and a buyer with an enforceable right to conveyance can recover the value stripped from the property as contract damages.
- Practical impact for CFD operators/buyers: Laurin is the cleanest Massachusetts authority that a purchaser under a real-estate purchase agreement holds a protectable equitable interest in the land before legal title passes. By extension it supports the proposition that an installment land-contract / contract-for-deed buyer — who is in possession and paying toward a deed — has equitable ownership the seller cannot waste away. It does not, however, decide how a long-term installment contract is terminated on default (forfeiture vs. foreclosure), which Massachusetts case law has not squarely resolved.
- Good-law status: Good law; routinely cited for the buyer’s equitable interest and the vendor’s no-waste duty under a Massachusetts purchase agreement.
- Source (retrieved): https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/laurin-v-decarolis-const-895376418 · official reporter copy at http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/372/372mass688.html · Justia, https://law.justia.com/cases/massachusetts/supreme-court/1977/372-mass-688-2.html · Verified: 2026-06-08; re-verified: 2026-06-10
Changelog
- 2026-06-10 — Second-pass re-verification (Justia + casemine corroborating masscases). Holding/disposition confirmed (buyer recovers value of removed gravel in place; remanded for recomputation). Tightened the “equitable ownership” characterization: the SJC’s own holding language frames the vendor as holding legal title “subject to an equitable obligation to convey” and calls the purchaser’s rights “contract rights rather than rights of ownership of real property” — the prior flat “buyer is the equitable owner” phrasing overstated the opinion. No misattribution or reversed disposition found.
Jurisdictions that follow / cite: massachusetts; see equitable-conversion.
Disclaimer. Legal information, not legal advice. Confirm the opinion is still good law before relying on it.