Northeastern wants Nahant to pick up legal tab

NAHANT — Northeastern University has filed a motion with Essex County Superior Court to have the Town of Nahant cover its costs from a case the town filed to take 12.5 acres of land known as East Point from the school by eminent domain.

The motion outlines four different forms of expenses Northeastern wants to have the town pay for: taxable litigation costs, such as deposition transcriptions and other document production; attorneys’ fees; experts’ fees, which were expended to have the property valued; and damages attributable to the delay in construction of the school’s Marine Science Center expansion.

In April, the court sided with Northeastern’s defense, which argued that Nahant’s “dominant” reason for wanting to take the land was to block the university from expanding the Marine Science Center or any other potential development, as opposed to preserving open space, recreation, and wildlife area.

Nahant’s 2016 Open Space and Recreation Master Plan, the town’s most recent plan at the time of Northeastern’s 2018 announcement of the expansion project, “does not even mention any part of the NU property, other than Canoe Beach, as being an open-space resource,” according to the judgement.

“We are gratified that the court issued such a strong decision validating the university’s position that the town’s attempt to take the property was done in bad faith,” Northeastern Vice President of Communications Renata Nyul said in April. “Northeastern has owned its property in Nahant since the 1960s and the research our scientists do there is vitally important for coastal communities around the world. We look forward to shifting our focus away from this prolonged litigation and back to our mission of advancing scientific discovery.”

In the wake of Northeastern’s motion, The Board of Selectmen reiterated that the town’s primary purpose for the original case was to preserve open space.

“For more than 60 years, the town has consistently sought to protect East Point as it has been zoned a natural resource and it has been enjoyed by the public for generations. By this damage claim, Northeastern University seeks to impose a $25 million dollar burden on Nahant, while at the same time planning to build a multi-million development in Nahant’s natural resource area,” the board said in a joint statement. “The Board of Selectmen intends to continue to protect East Point and public access to it, as authorized and directed by town residents, to the fullest extent allowed by law.”