Chapter 231

Section 101. When an appeal is taken from a judgment of a district court, the clerk shall transmit to the clerk of the superior court the complaint, all papers filed in the case, all bonds, and a brief certificate of the proceedings, which shall be there entered by the appellant.

Section 102. When such appeal is taken, the names of all the parties thereto, the nature of the action or proceeding, the doings of the court thereon, the final disposition thereof and the amount of costs taxed shall be entered on the docket; and no other record thereof shall be …

Section 102C. The superior court may of its own motion or on the motion of a plaintiff or defendant, after determination by said court that if the plaintiff prevails, there is no reasonable likelihood that recovery will exceed twenty-five thousand dollars, transfer for trial any …

Section 103. If a party elects to bring in any district court any action or other civil proceeding which he might have begun in the superior court, he shall be deemed to have waived a trial by jury and his right of appeal to the superior court, unless within thirty days of commen…

Section 104. Any other party, a plaintiff against whom a claim, counterclaim, or cross-claim is brought, and a defendant who asserts a compulsory counterclaim, may, provided that the amount of the claim against such other party, the amount of the claim, counterclaim or cross-clai…

Section 104A. In any action brought by or against two or more persons in which separate judgments are authorized by the District-Municipal Courts Rules of Civil Procedure, the party seeking removal may specify in his claim of trial by the superior court the parties as to whom suc…

Section 106. Any party, in lieu of filing the bond required in section one hundred and four, may deposit with the clerk the sum of one hundred dollars. A certificate of such deposit shall be issued to the depositor by the clerk, and the deposit shall be transmitted by him, with t…

Section 107. No bond or deposit under section one hundred and four or one hundred and six shall be required of the commonwealth or any officer or employee thereof represented by the attorney general, or of a county, city, town or other municipal corporation, or of a board, office…

Section 108. There shall be an appellate division of each district court for the rehearing of matters of law arising in civil cases, in claims of compensation of victims of violent crimes, and in civil motor vehicle infractions. The division of the Boston municipal court shall co…

Section 109. An appeal to the appeals court shall lie from the final decision of the appellate division of any division of the district court department including appeals taken hereunder from the appellate division of the Boston municipal court department. Claims of appeal shall …

Section 110. The appellate division of each district court shall have the powers of amendment of the trial court; shall have discretionary power to take further testimony and to render a decision based on such testimony; to decide issues of fact dependent upon issues of law or to…

Section 111. A justice of the superior or land court or the judge of the housing court of the city of Boston, the western division of the housing court department, the northeastern division of the housing court department, the southeastern division of the housing court depart men…

Section 112. A justice of the supreme judicial court, after a finding of facts by the court may report a case for determination by the full court or the appeals court. If a justice of the supreme judicial court is of the opinion that an interlocutory finding or order made by him …

Section 112A. Proceedings before the appeals court or the full court of the supreme judicial court upon a report pursuant to the two preceding sections shall be governed by the Massachusetts Rules of Appellate Procedure. The report shall constitute a notice of appeal within the m…

Section 112B. In civil actions, formal exceptions to rulings or orders of any court are unnecessary; but for all purposes for which an exception has heretofore been necessary it is sufficient that a party, at the time the ruling or order of the court is made or sought, makes know…

Section 113. A party aggrieved by a final judgment of the superior court, the land court, the housing court of the city of Boston, the western division of the housing court department, the northeastern division of the housing court department, the southeastern division of the hou…

Section 114. A party aggrieved by a final judgment of a single justice of the supreme judicial court may appeal therefrom to the full court of the supreme judicial court.

Section 115. Upon an appeal the appeals court or the supreme judicial court shall affirm, reverse, or modify the judgment appealed from. Upon reversal of a final judgment either court may remand a cause to the trial court which entered the judgment appealed from with necessary an…

Section 116. Upon an appeal from a final judgment, the justice of the court by whom it was made may make such orders staying the enforcement of the judgment in an action for an injunction or appointment of a receiver as are needful for the protection of the rights of the parties,…

Section 117. After an appeal has been taken from a final judgment of the superior court, the land court, the housing court of the city of Boston, the western division of the housing court department, the northeastern division of the housing court department, the southeastern divi…

Section 118. A party aggrieved by an interlocutory order of a trial court justice in the superior court department, the housing court department, the land court department, the juvenile court department or the probate and family court department may file, within thirty days of th…

Section 118A. A party aggrieved by an interlocutory order of a trial court justice in the district court department or the Boston municipal court department issued pursuant to section 19C of chapter 218 in response to a request for equitable relief may file within 10 days of the …

Section 119. No error in either the admission or the exclusion of evidence and no error or defect in any ruling or order or anything done or omitted by the trial court or by any of the parties is ground for modifying or otherwise disturbing a judgment or order unless the appeals …

Section 124. Whenever a question in dispute at the trial of an issue of fact in any civil action depends upon the decision of a question of law, the appeals court or the full bench of the supreme judicial court, upon appeal may, if satisfied that it has before it all the facts ne…

Section 125. Upon appeal in a civil action the appeals court and supreme judicial court shall have all the powers of amendment of the court below; and whenever objections have been taken to the exclusion of evidence, or where the alleged error arises from the omission at the tria…

Section 125A. Upon appeal in any case, in equity or probate, where the evidence is not reported, the full court, if of opinion that a report of material facts required by or made under section fifteen A of chapter one hundred and eighty-five, section twenty-three of chapter two h…

Section 130. If a new trial is refused, the court may impose terms upon the moving party, to be taxed as costs.

Section 132. No new trial shall be granted in any civil action or proceeding on the ground of improper admission or rejection of evidence, or for any error as to any matter of pleading or procedure, if the judge who presided at the trial when application is made by motion for a n…

Section 138. No subsequent attaching creditor or purchaser of property attached, other than parties to the record, shall be bound by an amendment of the pleadings which substantially affects his rights unless he has had due notice of the motion for leave to amend and unless he ha…

Section 139. If a corporation is a party to an action or proceeding referred to in this chapter, all motions, pleadings, or other papers requiring the signature or oath of the party may be signed or sworn to in behalf of the corporation by an officer or agent thereunto specially …

Section 13A. Any judgment entered in an action upon a contract, promissory note or other instrument in which or in a memorandum or writing relating to which is contained a stipulation, whereby the defendant in such action waived or agreed to waive or authorized another person to …

Section 13B. No complaint in any civil action shall contain an ad damnum or monetary amount claimed against any defendant, unless such ad damnum or monetary amount claimed indicates damages which are liquidated or ascertainable by calculation and a statement under oath by a perso…

Section 140A. In an action to recover damages for injuries to person or property, or for death, or consequential damages, so called, sustained by reason of a motor vehicle accident, a judgment entered by agreement of the parties, without a hearing on the merits, shall not operate…

Section 140B. Any person against whom a claim or suit for damages on account of bodily injury, property damage, or death is made, or if such person is insured against loss by reason of his liability to pay such damages the insurer of such person may advance money to, or pay bills…

Section 140C. No settlement or partial payment made under a liability insurance policy of a claim against any person insured thereunder shall be construed as an admission of liability by such person, with respect to any claim arising from the same event.

Section 21. If an answer in abatement filed in the land court in an action which is not governed by the Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure is overruled on demurrer, or, if, in consequence of such answer in abatement, the plaintiff amends, the defendant within such time as the…

Section 22. In real and mixed actions in the land court which are not governed by the Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure, the defendant may plead the general issue and may give in evidence thereunder all matters which he might formerly have pleaded in bar.

Section 31. In the district courts, the defendant may allege in defense any facts which would entitle him in equity to be absolutely and unconditionally relieved against the plaintiff's claim or cause of action or against a judgment recovered by the plaintiff in such action.

Section 35. In civil proceedings which are not governed by the Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure, the plaintiff may, in reply to a defense alleged by the defendant, allege any facts which would in equity avoid such defense or which would entitle the plaintiff to be absolutel…

Section 39. Real and mixed actions in the land court which are not governed by the Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure shall be considered at issue when the plea is filed.

Section 42. Any initial pleading or process by which an action is commenced by a plaintiff who is not an inhabitant of the commonwealth, shall before the filing or entry thereof, be endorsed by a responsible person who is such an inhabitant; but if one of the plaintiffs is such a…

Section 43. If a plaintiff, not an inhabitant of the commonwealth, fails, by accident, mistake or inadvertence, to have his pleading or process endorsed as required by the preceding section, the court may at any stage of the case, upon terms, allow him to procure an endorser with…

Section 44. If, after the commencement of a proceeding mentioned in section forty-two, the plaintiff removes from the commonwealth, the court, upon motion of any other party, shall, and of its own motion may, require the plaintiff to procure a responsible endorser.

Section 45. If an endorser removes from the commonwealth or ceases to be responsible, the court may require the plaintiff to procure a responsible endorser.

Section 47. If a plaintiff fails to procure an endorser according to the order of the court, his action shall be dismissed and the defendant or other party shall recover his costs.

Section 48. The court may permit the name of an endorser to be stricken out and a new and responsible endorser substituted. Every endorser shall be liable for costs from the commencement of the action.

Section 51. In all civil proceedings, the court may at any time, allow amendments adding a party, discontinuing as to a party or changing the form of the action, and may allow any other amendment in matter of form or substance in any process, pleading or proceeding, which may ena…

Section 52. In all civil proceedings which are not governed by the Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure or by the District-Municipal Courts Rules of Civil Procedure, the court may allow a party to whose pleadings a demurrer has been filed to amend, upon terms, within such time …

Section 58A. Damages shall not be assessed, except by special order of the court, in an action in which payment of the judgment is secured by a motor vehicle liability policy or a motor vehicle liability bond, both as defined in section thirty-four A of chapter ninety, and wherei…