Condo Media - December 2020 - 24

VENDOR SPOTLIGHT

Moriarty Troyer & Malloy LLC
Not Just a Condominium Law Firm:
A Good Corporate Citizen
[by Pamela Schweppe]

Every association is different, as everyone knows,
and mobile home parks are a little different than most.
As Tom Moriarty, a founding principal of Moriarty
Troyer & Malloy LLC, explains it, owners of mobile homes
own their structure, but not the land it sits on. So, when a
national organization swoops in and acquires the property
- as is happening more and more often - mobile homeowners are more vulnerable than a traditional association.
It's a situation that confronted Easton Mobile Home
Park of Easton, Mass., when the property was bought
in the early 2000s by Morgan Management of Buffalo,
New York. At its height, Morgan Management owned
180 properties and 36,000 units in 14 states - and had
little interest in a distant mobile home park with a
maximum capacity of only 122 units.
CALL IT DAVID VERSUS GOLIATH
Over the decade-plus of Morgan Management's ownership, conditions at Easton Mobile Home Park deteriorated
dramatically. According to Thom Aylesworth, also a principal of Moriarty Troyer & Malloy, all of the infrastructure
systems were dilapidated, including roadways, the drinking water system, the stormwater drainage system, and,
most seriously, the onsite septic system, which had failed
to the point that open sewage was ﬂowing down streets
and lawns. When Morgan Management refused to make
much-needed repairs, despite being directed to do so by
the town's rent-control board, the case ended up in court.
That's when Aylesworth got involved. Working then
with a different ﬁrm, he started representing the Easton
Mobile Home Park Homeowners' Association on the case.
Even after the association won in superior court, Morgan
Management still refused to comply. " We won the battle,
but the war was still raging, " Aylesworth says.
When Aylesworth transitioned to Moriarty Troyer &
Malloy in 2018, he was eager to continue his partnership
with the Easton Mobile Home Park Homeowners'
Association, but he knew by that point it would have to
be on a pro bono basis. He approached Moriarty with

that request. " We said, 'Absolutely! This is right in our
wheelhouse, and this is the kind of thing we want to
lend our expertise to,' " Moriarty recalls.
" The fact that this ﬁrm would, without hesitation,
be supportive of what is a fairly major undertaking -
it's not a small case, and it requires a lot of work - it sure
means a lot to me, because I share the views of the other
attorneys here that we have an obligation to give back
when we can, " Aylesworth says. " I'm very proud that
we were able to take this on. "
The association since joined an action that succeeded in
putting the park into receivership in January of this year.
Aylesworth now is taking steps to try to enable the association to purchase the park. " At least we have hope now, "
says Scott Walsh, president of the Easton Mobile Home
Park Homeowners' Association. " If it weren't for attorney
Thom Aylesworth and his ﬁrm, it would be a very dismal
situation. Thom Aylesworth is a great attorney that's done
great work for us and has made it affordable. "
A CORPORATE CULTURE OF GIVING BACK
This attitude of giving back without hesitation is embedded in the DNA of Moriarty Troyer & Malloy. Already
a familiar presence in the New England condominium
industry, the ﬁrm was founded in February 2017 by three
attorneys, each with substantial experience in condominium law. Based in Braintree, Mass., with offices also in
Boston and on Cape Cod, the ﬁrm represents associations
throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern
New Hampshire. It is, as Moriarty puts it, a " one-stop
shop " for condominium law, providing litigation,
transactional, general counsel, and collection services.
While its focus is primarily condominiums and
homeowner associations, it also represents developers,
property management companies, and commercial real
estate clients. The ﬁrm collectively boasts over a century
of experience in the industry - with roughly half that
total attributed to the principals alone. And the ﬁrm's
founding attorneys have been personally involved in

Condo Media - December 2020

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