A Massachusetts family has filed a lawsuit challenging a state law that allows private investors to “steal” the equity that homeowners hold in their property over relatively small tax debts. The lawsuit, known as Mucciaccio v. Town of Easton and Tallage Lincoln LLC, was filed Jan. 6 in Massachusetts Superior Court. The legal action takes aim at what some call “home equity theft,” which is reportedly widespread in the Bay State, according to the Sacramento, California-based Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a public interest firm that’s representing the Mucciaccio family for free. PLF says it’s committed to ending home equity theft across the country. “The Massachusetts tax foreclosure system is particularly egregious and a recipe for cronyism because it regularly grants massive windfalls to private lienholders,” PLF said in a statement. “The average foreclosed property value exceeds the average tax debt by a ratio of 50:1. In just one year, municipalities and private investors stole over $56 million in …