'Hump we couldn't get over.' Cape family loses appeal, claim to land on Martha's Vineyard

A Massachusetts Appeals Court decision was made in the favor of Vineyard Conservation Society on Thursday after a Dec. 5 hearing was held to determine ownership of 5.7 acres of land in Gay Head (Aquinnah).

The land, also known as Lot 240, has been the center of a 7-year-long court case between Vineyard Conservation Society and the Devine family. Court deliberations stretch back to May 2017 when a complaint was filed by Vineyard Conservation Society to decipher who Lot 240 was deeded to in 1870.

Tanisha Gomes, one of 19 defendants in the case, said the deed that includes Lot 240 was fraudulent and legally passed to the defendants through their ancestor Louisa Pocknett Devine. The conservation society bases its claim of ownership on 1944 and 1945 deeds, which the society says show that Horace Devine — Louisa Pocknett Devine's grandson — gave Henry Cronig, a real estate company owner in the mid-1900s, the entirety of his family's land including Lot 240.

Cronig founded Cronig's Real Estate in 1917, according the company website. The company is based in Vineyard Haven.

"We haven’t had time to process the ruling," Gomes said on Friday to the Times.

Marlene Devine, another defendant in the case, said the Appeals Court judges weren't well versed in Land Court cases. "It's disappointing that the Appeals Court didn't do their due diligence," she said.

Attorney Jonathan Polloni, who argued for the Devine family, called the case an "uphill fight" on Friday and said he had been hoping for a different outcome.

"It was a bit of a long shot. But in my heart, I was hoping that common sense would prevail," he said.

Vineyard Conservation Society board President Jennifer Blum declined to comment Saturday and referred questions to Executive Director Samantha Look. Look did not respond to requests for comment.

Why was the ruling in favor of Vineyard Conservation Society?

In the decision, Appeals Court judges said that the Devine ancestors, who were Wampanoag, made their intentions to give up claims to land located on Gay Head, clear. During the December hearing, Associate Justice Kenneth V. Desmond Jr. peppered Polloni with questions about the language of the deed.

Gomes told the Times in 2022 that, from her perspective, the 1944 and 1945 deeds specify lots that were sold to Cronig by Horace Devine, with a certain dollar value attached. But Lot 240 was never named or described in either deed, she said.

"There is language in the deed where Horace states 'all my land in Gay Head,' which Vineyard Conservation says includes Lot 240," she said. "But because Lot 240 isn't named on that deed, it's hard to say that Horace gave it away. I don't believe he gave all his land away in Gay Head."

While Lot 240 wasn't specifically named on any of the deeds associated with the transaction between Horace Devine and Henry Cronig, said Polloni, the court chose not to ignore a deed interpretation which he said was based on "broad, expansive language."

"That was the hump we couldn't get over," said Polloni.

The conservation society, said Polloni, also already had a claim to the land through an alternative chain of title. And the Devines, he said, weren't able to establish who the owners should be, other than referring to Devine heirs in a general sense, said Polloni.

"The Devine family hadn't made a claim on the land for a very long time," said Polloni. "That meant the case was coming up in an unusual way."

The Devine family is welcome to enter an appeal to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, said Polloni. "They aren't obligated to take on an appeal just because one is filed," he said of the court, generally.

Kennedy connections to Lot 240

Since 1945, Lot 240 has passed through several layers of ownership, eventually landing in the hands of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1978.

In 2022, Gomes told the Times that Lot 240 was included in a 2013 gift deed between Caroline Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy's daughter, and the Vineyard Conservation Society. According to gift deed documents provided by Gomes, the Kennedy family, through its Red Gate Farm LLC, donated 30 acres of its Aquinnah property to the conservation society. The land, which was valued at $3.7 million, was gifted for $10, according to the documents.

Vineyard Conservation Society files lawsuit

In 2017, Gomes received a letter from Fidelity National Law Group to inform her and the other defendants about title questions with the land.

The letter informed Gomes and her relatives that a lawsuit was filed in Dukes County Superior Court against the family. Pocknett Devine is described in the complaint as the former owner of the property. She died on Aug. 29, 1874, and was a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.

The family members were asked to sign an agreement to verify they had no right, title or interest in Lot 240, which was indicated on a plan entitled "Plan of Gay Head."

After further research, Gomes and her family found that Lot 240 remained in Devine Pocknett's name on the town of Aquinnah assessor department website, and objected to the lawsuit due to what the family believes was discrepancies surrounding incomplete deeds for Lot 240.

The name on the assessor website changed, said Gomes, after the Dec. 5 Appeals Court hearing.

The case is important because of how land has been manipulated away from Wampanoag families over time, she said.

"There are Wampanoag families across the Cape and Islands who continue to fight for sovereignty and land, which was lost through colonization, and in this case, title fraud," said Gomes. "If our family won this latest case, it would have had an impact on land in Aquinnah that should custodially be held by Wampanoag people."

Rachael Devaney writes about community and culture. Reach her at rdevaney@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter: @RachaelDevaney.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod family loses Vineyard land case with tribal implications