SJC Rules Against Sudbury In Suit Over Transmission Line Project

SUDBURY, MA — The Supreme Judicial Court has ruled against Sudbury in a complicated case involving a plan to bury power transmission lines under a former MBTA rail bed that cuts through town from Wayland to Marlborough.

In a ruling released Tuesday, the SJC said that Sudbury's case would've jeopardized other land transfers to utility companies, which is in line with a Land Court judge's previous ruling. The case revolved around a doctrine called "prior public use," which says public land acquired for public use "may not be diverted to another inconsistent public use unless the subsequent use is authorized by plain and explicit legislation," Tuesday's SJC ruling explained.

In 2017, Sudbury sued the MBTA over a deal with Eversource to bury transmission lines under the defunct rail line. Sudbury argued the MBTA needed approval from the state Legislature to offer the land to Eversource since the railway was once going to be used for a public commuter rail line.

The MBTA has argued it didn't need legislative approval because the transmission line project is private, not public.

The state Land Court ruled against Sudbury in 2018, and the Supreme Judicial Court agreed to hear the case on appeal in October 2019.

The SJC said Tuesday that siding with Sudbury "would create widespread uncertainty concerning numerous existing holdings of private land that were transferred by public entities."

"Because we decline to extend our longstanding doctrine of prior public use to include a diversion from public use to an inconsistent private use, the town cannot prevail on ... its claims," the SJC decision said.

Sudbury also claimed that the project would harm the environment, particularly open space owned by the land that abuts the rail line. Of those claims, the SJC said "the town either does not have standing to assert them, or the asserted harm is not legally cognizable."

Eversource wants to build an underground transmission line from a substation in Sudbury to a Hudson Light & Power Department substation. The line would run through Sudbury along the 4.3-mile former MBTA corridor. The state Department of Conservation and Recreation is planning to pave the corridor for use as a rail trail.

Eversource got permission for the project from the state Energy Facilities Siting Board in December. DCR, meanwhile, is seeking permits from Sudbury for permission to build the rail trail over the transmission line.

The DCR pathway would connect to an existing trail that ends at Russell's Garden Center in Wayland at the Sudbury border. From Wayland, the pathway heads east to Route 117 in Waltham.