Case Title: Greci v. Travelers Insurance Co.

Citation: 

Docket Number: SJC-12646

State: massachusetts

Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court

Date: 2020-01-13T00:00:00Z

Document:
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SJC-12646 
 
JOSEPHINE GRECI  vs.  TRAVELERS INSURANCE COMPANY & another.1 
 
 
January 13, 2020. 
 
 
Supreme Judicial Court, Superintendence of inferior courts.  
Notice, Timeliness.  Practice, Civil, Notice of appeal. 
 
 
 
The plaintiff, Josephine Greci, filed papers in the county 
court referencing G. L. c. 211, § 3, and seeking relief from an 
order of a single justice of the Appeals Court denying her leave 
to file a late notice of appeal more than one year after the 
Department of Industrial Accidents (DIA) had approved a lump sum 
agreement in her workers' compensation case.  A single justice 
of this court denied relief without a hearing.  We affirm. 
 
 
Background.  This case arises out of a workers' 
compensation proceeding before the DIA, which culminated in the 
DIA's approval of a lump sum agreement on June 28, 2016.  See 
G. L. c. 152, § 48.  Almost two years after the approval, Greci 
moved that the DIA grant her an extension of time to appeal from 
the approved lump sum agreement.  An administrative judge denied 
Greci's motion.  He also denied a request for reconsideration. 
 
 
Greci next filed, in the Appeals Court, a "notice of 
appeal" from the administrative judge's orders.  A single 
justice of that court treated Greci's notice as a motion for 
leave to file a late notice of appeal from the 2016 approved 
lump sum agreement, and denied it as untimely.  See Mass. R. A. 
P. 14 (b), as amended, 378 Mass. 939 (1979).2  Greco then filed 
                                                          
 
 
1 VNA of Boston. 
 
 
2 The rule provides in relevant part:  "neither the 
appellate court nor a single justice may enlarge the time for 
2 
 
 
her papers in the county court seeking review, under G. L. 
c.  211, § 3, of the Appeals Court single justice's order. 
 
 
Discussion.  The court's extraordinary power of 
superintendence, pursuant to G. L. c. 211, § 3, is used 
sparingly.  It is incumbent on a party who seeks such relief "to 
create a record -- not merely to allege but to demonstrate, 
i.e., to provide copies of the lower court docket entries and 
any relevant pleadings, motions, orders, recordings, 
transcripts, or other parts of the lower court record necessary 
to substantiate [her] allegations -- showing both a substantial 
claim of violation of a substantive right and that the violation 
could not have been remedied in the normal course of a trial and 
appeal or by other available means."  Gorod v. Tabachnick, 428 
Mass. 1001, 1001, cert. denied, 525 U.S. 1003 (1998), and cases 
cited.  The two pages Greci filed in the county court were 
inadequate to satisfy that burden.  Among other things, she 
failed to provide any part of the record from the DIA or the 
Appeals Court, and she failed to allege, let alone demonstrate, 
the absence or inadequacy of alternative remedial routes.  On 
that basis alone, the single justice correctly could have denied 
relief. 
 
 
In addition, as we have often said, a single justice 
properly denies relief under G. L. c. 211, § 3, "where there are 
adequate and effective routes . . . by which the petitioning 
party may seek relief."  Greco v. Plymouth Sav. Bank, 423 Mass. 
1019, 1019 (1996).  See Lasher v. Leslie-Lasher, 474 Mass. 1003, 
1004 (2016).  The alternative remedy in this case is clear:  
Greci could have appealed to a panel of the Appeals Court from 
the Appeals Court single justice's order denying leave to file a 
late notice of appeal.  See, e.g., Tisei v. Building Inspector 
of Marlborough, 3 Mass. App. Ct. 377, 379 (1975).  We express no 
view as to the merits of any such appeal. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Judgment affirmed. 
 
 
 
The case was submitted on briefs. 
 
Josephine Greci, pro se. 
 
Scott E. Richardson for the defendants. 
                                                          
 
filing a notice of appeal beyond one year from the date of entry 
of the judgment or order sought to be reviewed."