Chapter 237

Section 1. All estates of freehold in fee simple, fee tail or for life may be recovered in a civil action.

Section 10. Non-tenure, disclaimer, several tenancy and sole tenancy may be pleaded in answer.

Section 11. The plaintiff may recover any specific part or undivided portion of the land to which he proves a sufficient title, although less than demanded in the complaint.

Section 12. If the plaintiff recovers judgment, he shall recover in the same action, subject to the limitations provided in this chapter, damages for rents and profits of the land from the time when his title accrued and for any destruction or waste of the buildings or other prop…

Section 13. Rents and profits for which the defendant is liable shall be the clear annual value of the land while he was in possession thereof, after deducting all lawful taxes and assessments on the land paid by him and all necessary and ordinary expenses of cultivating the land…

Section 14. In determining rents and profits, the value of the use by the defendant of any improvements made by him or by those under whom he claims shall be excluded.

Section 15. The defendant shall not be liable for rents and profits for any time more than six years prior to the commencement of the action or for waste or damage committed before said six years, unless rents and profits are allowed to diminish the defendant's recovery upon his …

Section 16. If the land demanded has been actually held and possessed by the defendant and by those under whom he claims for six years next before the commencement of the action, he shall, if judgment is against him, be entitled to compensation as hereinafter provided for the val…

Section 17. The defendant shall also be entitled to like compensation although the land has not been so held for six years, if he holds it under a title which he had reason to believe good.

Section 18. The defendant may interpose a counterclaim for the value of such improvements.

Section 2. A civil action to recover freehold estates in fee simple, fee tail or for life may be prosecuted against the commonwealth under this chapter.

Section 20. The amount recovered by the defendant upon such counterclaim shall not exceed the amount actually expended by the defendant and those under whom he claims, nor shall it exceed the amount by which the value of the land is actually increased thereby as assessed at the t…

Section 21. Except as provided in sections twenty-two to twenty-four, inclusive, and in section twenty-six, if there is a trial in the land court, it shall at the same time assess the amounts due the plaintiff for rents and profits or other damages, if any, and shall determine th…

Section 22. If trial by jury shall be demanded and if issues therefor are to be framed to obtain an assessment of the amounts due to the plaintiff for rents and profits or other damages, or a determination of the amount to be allowed to the defendant for improvements, or of the v…

Section 23. If issues are postponed under the preceding section, and if, on its trial of the title, the land court shall make a finding or decision in favor of the plaintiff, that court shall, on motion of either party, made before its finding or decision on the title is recorded…

Section 24. If issues have been postponed under section twenty-two, and if, after a finding or decision in favor of the plaintiff on the title, no motion under section twenty-three is seasonably made, that the procedure provided by section fifteen of chapter one hundred and eight…

Section 25. In cases where an assessment of the amounts due to the plaintiff for rents and profits and other damages, or a determination of the amount to be allowed to the defendant for improvements, or of the value of the plaintiff's estate is to be made by the land court, such …

Section 26. The defendant shall have judgment upon his counterclaim for the value of the improvements. The plaintiff shall have judgment and execution for the amount found due him for rents and profits and other damages due from the defendant as well as for seisin of the land.

Section 27. If the amount found due to the defendant for improvements exceeds the amount found due from him for rents and profits accruing within six years, he shall be chargeable with rents and profits accruing before that time, so far as necessary to balance his judgment for im…

Section 28. The plaintiff shall, except as provided in the following section, before taking out execution for seisin of the land, pay to the defendant, or for his use to the recorder of the land court, the amount, if any, by which the defendant's judgment upon his counterclaim fo…

Section 29. If the plaintiff has had judgment for seisin of the land, he may take out a writ of seisin before judgment has been rendered upon his claim for rents and profits or other damages or upon the defendant's counterclaim for improvements, but if there is pending such a cou…

Section 3. The plaintiff shall declare on his own seisin within twenty years then last past, without specifying any particular day, and shall allege a disseisin by the defendant, but need not aver a taking of the profits. He shall set forth the estate which he claims in the land …

Section 30. If the defendant has judgment for such improvements, he may have an execution therefor or he may collect the same, with all reasonable costs and expenses for such collection, out of the security furnished, or may receive it out of the money paid into court and the res…

Section 31. If the defendant counterclaims for improvements as before provided the plaintiff may, by motion, require the value of his estate in the land demanded, without the improvements, to be determined as provided for the assessment of rents, profits and improvements. Such va…

Section 32. After said determination of value the plaintiff may, at the sitting at which judgment is entered for him, enter upon the record his election to relinquish his estate in the land to the defendant at said value; and upon his motion for further time in which to make such…

Section 33. If the plaintiff elects to relinquish the land as before provided, the defendant shall thenceforth hold all the estate which the plaintiff had therein at the commencement of the action, if he pays said value thereof in three equal instalments on or before the expirati…

Section 34. Said payments shall be made to the plaintiff or for his use to the recorder of the land court; and if the defendant fails to make any such payment within the time limited therefor, the plaintiff may, within three months after default of payment, take out his writ of s…

Section 35. If the defendant or his heirs or assigns, after the land is so relinquished to him, are evicted therefrom by force of a better title than that of the original plaintiff, the person so evicted may recover in a civil action from such plaintiff, or from his executors, ad…

Section 36. If, after judgment for the plaintiff, either party dies before the writ of seisin is executed, or before the case is otherwise settled under this chapter, any money payable by the plaintiff or defendant, respectively, may be paid by him or his executor or administrato…

Section 37. The writ of seisin issued in such case shall be in the name of the original plaintiff against the original defendant, although either or both of them are dead, and when executed it shall enure to the benefit of the plaintiff or of the person entitled to the land under…

Section 38. If a plaintiff claiming an estate for life only satisfies a judgment upon the defendant's counterclaim for improvements, he or his executor or administrator shall, at the determination of his estate, be paid by the remainderman or reversioner the value of the improvem…

Section 39. If the amount due from the remainderman or reversioner is not agreed on by the parties, it may be determined in a civil action brought by the remainderman or reversioner; and the proceedings shall be the same as in a suit for the redemption of a mortgage.

Section 4. The plaintiff need not prove an actual entry under his title, but proof that he is entitled to such an estate as he claims in the land and that he has a right of entry therein shall be sufficient to prove his seisin. No such action shall be maintained unless the plaint…

Section 40. The remainderman or reversioner, or those claiming under him, shall not recover from the adverse party the excess, if any, of rents and profits accruing after the determination of the estate for life, over the amount due for the improvements.

Section 41. The remainderman or reversioner, or those claiming under him, shall be deemed disseized at the determination of the life estate, and the civil action under section thirty-nine and all other remedies by action or entry for the recovery of the land shall be barred as in…

Section 42. An officer serving an execution issued upon a judgment for possession shall, within three months after the service, and before the return of the execution into the recorder's office, cause such execution with his return thereon to be recorded in the registry of deeds …

Section 43. This chapter shall not prevent the plaintiff from maintaining an action for mesne profits, or for damage done to the land, against any person, except the defendant in the action to regain seisin.

Section 44. The provisions of this chapter relative to rents and profits to be recovered, an allowance for improvements made on the land demanded and the value of the land without the improvements shall not apply to an action brought by a mortgagee, his heirs or assigns, against …

Section 5. Such action shall be prosecuted in the same manner as if the plaintiff, at the time of commencing the action, had made an actual entry on the land demanded and had been immediately ousted by the defendant. In a trial upon the general issue, if the plaintiff proves that…

Section 6. A person in possession of land demanded in a civil action, claiming an estate of freehold therein, may be considered as a disseisor for the purpose of trying the right, irrespective of the manner of his original entry therein.

Section 7. If the person in possession has actually ousted the plaintiff or withheld from him the possession of the land, he may, at the election of the plaintiff, be considered as a disseisor for the purpose of trying the right, although he claims an estate less than a freehold.

Section 8. Joint tenants or tenants in common may join in a civil action for the recovery of land, or any one of them may sue alone for his share.

Section 9. The law and practice relative to pleadings and evidence in a writ of entry upon disseisin, as heretofore recognized and established, shall continue in force, except as altered by this chapter and chapters one hundred and eighty-five and two hundred and thirty-one and b…