David A. Michel quoted in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly on construction settlement hidden from Land Court

David A. Michel, partner in the firm’s Litigation Department, was quoted in an article from Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly published on December 9, 2025. The article, “Builder bound by secretive settlement kept from Land Court,” discusses a case involving two parties, one of them being a construction business and its owner, the other a property owner, who secretly reached an agreement that was already being decided by the Land Court.

From the article:

David A. Michel, a real estate litigator in Boston, was also perplexed by the parties’ failure to notify the Land Court.

“If you have a settlement agreement and the goal is to have certainty and remove the risk and burden of further litigation, and you have motions under advisement, I’m not sure why you wouldn’t alert the court and ask for a stay or wouldn’t seek a nisi order that allows sufficient time for contingencies to occur or not occur,” he said.

Michel said he was not surprised by the panel’s ruling on the merits.

“It’s pretty much textbook law that frustration of purpose and impossibility or impracticability of performance don’t apply here where you’ve made it so clear that everybody knows that these motions are under advisement and a decision [by the Land Court] could come out at any time,” Michel said. “The court doesn’t reach the issue of whether a private settlement agreement can supersede a judgment, but any court is going to be reluctant to overturn an agreement to settle litigation that reflects a reasonable compromise by the parties just because the court was kept in the dark.”

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