As reported in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly this week, the firm won a complete victory overturning not only the permit and conditions imposed on its client, but an order that the underlying municipal bylaw is invalid as applied to the cranberry grower’s agricultural operations. In a decision on the appeal to Superior Court from the town’s permit, which included various restrictions and a fee on the client’s cranberry operations, the Court ruled that the conditions were arbitrary, and that the fee, which the Firm argued was an unlawful tax, was improper. The case focused largely on the interpretation of M.G.L. c. 40A, s.3 which protects, in part, agricultural land uses from local permit requirements, and its scope with respect to separately adopted earth removal bylaws authorized under a different state statute. Ultimately, the Court concluded that the protections under M.G.L. 40A extend to the agricultural use of sand essential to maintaining cranberry bogs. See the full decision below.