Chapter 235

Section 10. The court shall award an execution for so much of the penal sum as is then due and payable in equity and good conscience for the breach of the condition or other non-performance of the contract. The amount shall be determined by the court, unless a jury trial was clai…

Section 11. If a further amount afterwards becomes due on such bond or other contract, the plaintiff, his executor or administrator may by a motion in the court in which the judgment was rendered stating the nature of such further breach, cause the original defendant, his executo…

Section 12. The amount due in such action shall be determined and execution awarded in the same manner as in the original action; and such proceedings may be repeated upon further breaches until the penalty is exhausted.

Section 13. The four preceding sections shall not prevent a person from bringing an action for the breach of a covenant or other contract, instead of suing for the penalty by which the performance of the covenant or contract was secured.

Section 14. (a) If a judgment is rendered for the plaintiff by a court in an action founded on a judgment rendered by a court outside of the commonwealth, execution shall not issue until the plaintiff files with the court rendering the judgment in the later action a transcript of…

Section 15. If judgment is rendered in a local action brought in an erroneous venue, the court shall cause its writ of possession or other writ of execution to be directed to the sheriff of the proper county.

Section 16. No execution shall issue upon a judgment until the exhaustion of all possible appellate review thereof, and the receipt by the clerk of the trial court of the appropriate rescript or order.

Section 17. An original execution shall not issue after the expiration of one year after the party is first entitled to take it out; and an alias or other successive execution shall not issue after the expiration of five years from the return day of that which preceded it. Subjec…

Section 18. Executions issued by a district court may be served and shall be obeyed in every county to which they are directed.

Section 19. If a judgment remains unsatisfied after the expiration of the time for taking out execution thereon, the creditor may obtain a new execution by motion to the court in which such unsatisfied judgment was rendered, or he may at any time after the judgment, subject to se…

Section 20. If an execution is returned satisfied in whole or in part by the sale of property not liable to such execution, and if damages are recovered against the judgment creditor or the officer who served the execution on account of the seizure and sale of such property, the …

Section 21. If an execution against a corporation is satisfied in whole or in part by service or levy on the person or property of a member thereof, and the property levied on or damages for the service or levy are subsequently recovered by such member from the officer or judgmen…

Section 22. The forms of execution shall be the same as have heretofore been established by law and the usage and practice of the courts. Executions issued upon judgments in civil actions in favor of the commonwealth shall be in form like those in favor of natural persons. Execut…

Section 23. Original executions issuing on judgments against executors, administrators, trustees and other fiduciary officers in their representative capacity, including any such original execution running against two or more parties, any one or more of whom are fiduciary officer…

Section 23A. Except as hereinafter provided, any foreign judgment that is final and conclusive and enforceable where rendered even though an appeal therefrom is pending or it is subject to appeal shall be conclusive between the parties to the extent that it grants or denies recov…

Section 24. If a plaintiff would be entitled to a judgment or a decree, except for the bankruptcy or insolvency of the debtor or his discharge therein, and if, more than four months prior to the commencement of proceedings in bankruptcy, or, in voluntary proceedings in insolvency…

Section 25. If a plaintiff would be entitled to a judgment or decree except for the bankruptcy or insolvency of a defendant, or his discharge therein, who has given a bond to dissolve an attachment or to release money or property brought within the control of a court of equity in…

Section 26. The court may enter a special judgment, with like effect, if a defendant who petitions for a review is adjudged a bankrupt, or a warrant in insolvency is issued against his estate, or he is discharged upon proceedings in composition if no assignment has been made, bef…

Section 27. Executions between the same parties may, if required by either party, be set off one against the other. In such case, the debtor in an execution which has been delivered to an officer to be served shall deliver his execution to the same officer, whether directed to hi…

Section 28. If an execution is in the alternative, so that it may be lawfully served in any of two or more ways, the creditor or his attorney may require the officer to serve it in any of said ways; and the officer shall conform to such directions if it is in his power.

Section 29. If the creditor directs an officer to levy his execution on land, the officer shall serve it as provided in the following chapter. If he directs the officer to levy it on the personal property of the debtor, the officer shall serve it as provided in the following sect…

Section 3. District courts may by rule establish the time for the entry of judgment in actions of summary process under chapter two hundred and thirty-nine which are ripe for judgment.

Section 30. An execution against a corporation, if levied upon its property, shall be levied in the same manner as other executions.

Section 31. All property which by common law is liable to be taken on execution, may be taken and sold thereon, except as otherwise expressly provided.

Section 32. Current gold or silver coin may be taken on execution, and may be paid to the creditor as money collected.

Section 33. Bank notes and all other bills or evidences of debt, issued by a moneyed corporation and circulated as money, may be taken on execution and paid to the creditor at their par value as money collected, if he will accept them; otherwise, they shall be sold like other cha…

Section 34. The following property of the debtor shall be exempt from seizure on execution: First, The necessary wearing apparel, beds and bedding for the debtor and the debtor's family, 1 heating unit used for warming the dwelling house, 1 stove, 1 refrigerator, 1 freezer and 1 …

Section 34A. The right or interest of any person in an annuity, pension, profit sharing or other retirement plan subject to the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, in any plan maintained by one or more self-employed individuals as a Keogh Plan, so-called, in …

Section 35. If there is reasonable doubt as to the ownership of personal property or as to its liability to be taken on execution, before or after the execution has been levied thereon, the officer may require sufficient security from the creditor to indemnify him for taking or c…

Section 36. Personal property seized on execution shall be safely kept by the officer, at the expense of the debtor, for four days at least; and shall be sold by public auction within fourteen days next after the seizure, except as provided in the following sections, unless the d…

Section 37. The officer shall give notice of the time and place of sale by causing notices thereof to be posted forty-eight hours at least before the time of sale in a public place in the town where the sale is to be made, or by causing an advertisement of the time and place of s…

Section 38. If the value of such property to be sold exceeds three hundred dollars, the officer shall, at the request of either party, give notice of the sale by advertisement in a newspaper as provided in the preceding section; and the sale may be made at any time after the expi…

Section 39. If, at the time appointed for the sale, the officer considers it for the interest of all persons concerned to postpone it, he may adjourn it for not more than seven days, and so from time to time until the sale is completed; giving notice of every such adjournment by …

Section 4. Every judgment or order of the supreme judicial, superior or land court shall bear date of the year, month and day when entered; but the court may order it to be entered as of an earlier day than that of entry.

Section 40. If a sale of such property on execution is enjoined, it may be adjourned by the court granting the injunction to await further order of the court, and upon dissolution of the injunction the court may order the sale to proceed, and may order additional notice of the ad…

Section 41. If the highest bidder for an article at such sale refuses to take and pay for it, the officer shall sell it again by auction, at the same time or within ten days thereafter, giving notice of the second sale; and he shall account for what he receives on the second sale…

Section 42. The officer making such sale shall in his return of the execution particularly describe the property sold and the amount for which each article was sold; and if he is guilty of fraud in the sale or return, he shall be liable in tort to the party injured for five times…

Section 43. The officer shall apply the money arising from the sale to paying the charges and satisfying the execution, and shall return the residue, if any, to the debtor on demand, or shall apply and pay over the same as provided in the following sections.

Section 44. If the property sold on execution has been attached by another creditor, or seized on another execution, either by the same or another officer, or if before payment of such residue to the debtor another writ of attachment or execution against him is delivered to the o…

Section 45. If an attachment or seizure on execution is made of any property which may be attached without taking and keeping the exclusive possession thereof, and if the same property is subsequently attached or taken on execution by another officer, he shall give notice thereof…

Section 46. Terms for years, if the original lease was for one hundred years or more, and fifty years or more thereof remain unexpired, shall be regarded as real estate, for the levy of an execution thereon. Other terms for years shall be seized and sold on execution in like mann…

Section 47. If personal property has been seized on execution, and the further service of the execution is suspended by reason of a prior attachment or seizure of the same property, such property shall remain bound by such later seizure until sold, in whole or in part, under the …

Section 48. If such property is sold in part under the prior attachment or seizure, or if that attachment or seizure is dissolved, the property or any part thereof remaining undisposed of shall continue bound for thirty days thereafter by the seizure on the execution; and service…

Section 49. If an officer, who has begun to serve an execution or other writ or process, dies or becomes incapable of completing the service and return thereof, the service may be completed by any officer qualified to serve it; or in case of illness or absence, the judgment credi…

Section 50. If an officer has begun to serve an execution, he may complete the service and return thereof, although he is removed from office or although the service cannot be completed until after the return day.

Section 51. If either party dies after any property, real or personal, has been seized on execution, the service thereof may be completed in like manner and with like effect as if both parties were living and the officer may appoint an appraiser for the deceased party.

Section 52. An officer who, upon demand by the creditor, unreasonably neglects to pay money collected by him on execution shall forfeit to the creditor five times the lawful interest of the money from the time of the demand until it is paid.

Section 6. In an action against two or more defendants upon a contract express or implied, the plaintiff shall be entitled to judgment against such defendants as are defaulted and against those who upon trial are found liable, although it is found that all the defendants are not …

Section 7. If in such action any defendants are defaulted, and upon trial any of the others are found liable, the court shall render judgment both against those defaulted and those found liable for the debt or damages, with costs to the time of the default, and against those who …

Section 8. When judgment is rendered upon an award of county commissioners, a committee or referees, or upon the report of an auditor or master, or upon the verdict of a jury or the finding of a justice, interest shall be computed upon the amount of the award, report, verdict or …