Title: Yahya v. Rocktop Partners I, LP
Citation: N/A
Docket Number: SJC-12453
State: Massachusetts
Issuer: Massachusetts Supreme Court
Date: May 25, 2018

NOTICE:  All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal 
revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound 
volumes of the Official Reports.  If you find a typographical 
error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of 
Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 
Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA 02108-1750; (617) 557-
1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us 
 
SJC-12453 
 
HANEEFAH YAHYA  vs.  ROCKTOP PARTNERS I, LP. 
 
 
May 25, 2018. 
 
 
Supreme Judicial Court, Superintendence of inferior courts.  
Summary Process, Appeal.  Practice, Civil, Summary process, 
Default, Execution, Stay of proceedings. 
 
 
 
Haneefah Yahya appeals from a judgment of the county court 
denying, without a hearing, her petition for relief under G. L. 
c. 211, § 3.  In her petition, Yahya sought a stay of execution 
of a default judgment issued against her in a summary process 
action in the Boston Municipal Court (BMC) commenced by Rocktop 
Partners I, LP (Rocktop).  On June 27, 2016, a single justice of 
this court granted a stay of execution pending the BMC's 
resolution of certain outstanding motions that were scheduled 
for hearing the following day.  At the hearing on June 28, 2016, 
a judge in the BMC denied Yahya's motion to waive the appeal 
bond, denied her motion for relief from judgment, and granted an 
extension of time in which to file a notice of appeal.  The BMC 
docket indicates that Yahya appealed to the Appellate Division 
of the BMC as to the denial of the motion to waive the appeal 
bond and that, on or about January 12, 2017, the Appellate 
Division issued a decision, apparently affirming the denial.1  On 
                     
 
1 Yahya states that she has since posted the bond.  The 
record is ambiguous on this point: it contains several copies of 
the BMC docket, some of which indicate that the bond was posted, 
and others of which do not.  Yahya states that she received a 
receipt for the appeal bond, but a copy of the receipt itself is 
not included in the record before us.  On the other hand, 
nothing in the record suggests that any order has entered 
dismissing Yahya's summary process appeal.  See G. L. c. 239, 
§ 5 (h) ("If the defendant fails to file with the clerk of the 
2 
 
October 30, 2017, Rocktop filed a motion to reissue the 
execution for possession.  That motion was allowed on November 
7, 2017, and stayed until November 14, 2017.  Yahya then filed, 
in the county court, a supplement to her petition, challenging 
the allowance of Rocktop's motion and urging that the default 
judgment and execution be vacated.  A different single justice 
stayed the execution pending a decision on Yahya's petition.  
After Rocktop filed a response, the same single justice denied 
Yahya's petition without a hearing and vacated the stay.2  We 
affirm the denial of relief. 
 
 
Yahya has filed a memorandum and appendix pursuant to 
S.J.C. Rule 2:21, as amended, 434 Mass. 1301 (2001), which 
requires a party challenging an interlocutory ruling of the 
trial court to "set forth the reasons why review of the trial 
court decision cannot adequately be obtained on appeal from any 
final adverse judgment in the trial court or by other available 
means."  That rule does not apply, as Yahya is not challenging 
an interlocutory ruling of the trial court.  Nonetheless, it is 
clear that the judgment of the BMC is subject to review in the 
ordinary appellate process.  "Our general superintendence power 
under G. L. c. 211, § 3, is extraordinary and to be exercised 
sparingly, not as a substitute for the normal appellate process 
or merely to provide an additional layer of appellate review 
after the normal process has run its course."  Bishay v. Land 
Ct. Dep't of the Trial Ct., 477 Mass. 1032, 1033 (2017), quoting 
Fennick v. Kittredge, 460 Mass. 1012, 1012 (2011). 
 
                                                                  
court rendering the judgment, the amount of bond . . . required 
by the decision of the reviewing court within [five] days from 
receipt of notice of the decision, the appeal from the judgment 
shall be dismissed").  Cf. Wallace v. PNC Bank, 478 Mass. 1020, 
1021 (2018), quoting Matter of an Appeal Bond (No. 1), 428 Mass. 
1013, 1013 (1998) (proper course to challenge Appellate Division 
decision affirming denial of waiver of appeal bond is "to refuse 
to pay the bond, suffer the dismissal of [the] summary process 
appeal, and then appeal to the Appeals Court . . . from the 
order of dismissal").  If Yahya has posted the bond, and if her 
appeal is otherwise in procedural order, which we are unable to 
determine on this record, we trust that the BMC will promptly 
assemble the record and that the summary process appeal will 
proceed in the usual course. 
 
 
2 Yahya also filed a motion to stay the execution in this 
court.  Because of our disposition today, we need not act on the 
motion. 
3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Judgment affirmed. 
 
 
 
The case was submitted on briefs. 
 
Robert C. Johnson, Jr., for the petitioner. 
 
Patrick J. McDonald for the respondent.