5 Mass. App. Ct. 805 | Mass. App. Ct. | 1977
The plaintiffs’ action to restrain the use of residentially zoned land as an access road to an adjacent shopping center is barred by G. L. c. 40A, § 22, as appearing in St. 1970, c. 678. The statute of limitations imposed by c. 678 was made expressly applicable by § 2 to causes of action arising before the effective date of the statute as well as to those arising subsequently. (The reference in § 2 applying the “second” paragraph of G. L. c. 40A, § 22, to existing causes of action is obviously an error. It is clear that the first, rather than the second, paragraph of c. 40A, § 22, was intended to apply to actions arising before the effective date of the statute. Compare Massachusetts Gen. Hosp. v. Cambridge, 347 Mass. 519, 521 [1964].) The statute of limitations took effect ninety days after its enactment. Article 48 of the Amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth, The Referendum, I. G. L. c. 4, § 1. See Horton v. Attorney Gen. 269 Mass. 503, 511 (1929). A statute of limitations which forecloses existing causes of action is constitutional if litigants are afforded a rea
Judgment affirmed.