Francis Bevilacqua sued the former property owner to try to clear up the clouded title, but the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that because U.S. Bancorp foreclosed on the home one month before it was legally entitled to do so, “the intention of U.S. Bank to transfer the property to Bevilacqua is irrelevant and he cannot have become owner of the property.”
Bevilacqua’s complaint, based largely on the possibility of an adverse claim by the previous owner, was dismissed by a Land Court judge, and his appeal was denied because “the very fact that raises the possibility of an adverse claim – U.S. Bank’s lack of authority to foreclose at the time it purported to foreclose – is fatal to Bevilacqua’s claim to ‘own’ the property,” the Supreme Judicial Court ruled.