Chapter 260

Section 1. The following actions shall be commenced only within twenty years next after the cause of action accrues: First, Actions upon contracts under seal. Second, Actions upon bills, notes or other evidences of indebtedness issued by a bank. Third, Actions upon promissory not…

Section 10. If a person entitled to bring or liable to any action before mentioned dies before the expiration of the time hereinbefore limited, or within thirty days after the expiration of said time, and the cause of action by law survives, the action may be commenced by the exe…

Section 11. An action founded on any contract made or act done, if made or done by any person acting as the executor, administrator or other legal representative of the estate of a deceased person, shall be brought within one year, or, if made or done by any person acting as trus…

Section 12. If a person liable to a personal action fraudulently conceals the cause of such action from the knowledge of the person entitled to bring it, the period prior to the discovery of his cause of action by the person so entitled shall be excluded in determining the time l…

Section 13. No acknowledgment or promise shall be evidence of a new or continuing contract whereby to take an action of contract out of the operation of this chapter or to deprive a party of the benefit thereof, unless such acknowledgment or promise has been made by, or is contai…

Section 14. The preceding section shall not alter or impair the effect of a payment of principal or interest made by any person; but no endorsement or memorandum of any such payment, written or made upon a promissory note, bill of exchange or other writing by or on behalf of the …

Section 15. A joint contractor or his executor or administrator shall not lose the benefit of this chapter so as to be chargeable by reason only of an acknowledgment or promise made or signed, or by reason of a payment made, by any other joint contractor or his executor or admini…

Section 16. If, in actions against two or more joint contractors or against the executor or administrator of a joint contractor, it appears that the plaintiff is barred by this chapter as to one or more of such contractors, but is entitled to recover against any other or others o…

Section 17. A civil action shall not be dismissed for failure to join a party defendant if it is established by affidavit or otherwise that the action against such party was barred by limitation.

Section 18. The limitations of the preceding sections of this chapter, and of section thirty-two so far as applicable to personal actions, shall apply to actions brought by or for the commonwealth.

Section 19. If a special provision is otherwise made relative to the limitation of any action, any provision of this chapter inconsistent therewith shall not apply.

Section 19A. (a) As used in this section the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings: ''Euro'', the currency of participating member states of the European Union that adopt a single currency in accordance with the Treaty o…

Section 2. Actions of contract, other than those to recover for personal injuries, founded upon contracts or liabilities, express or implied, except actions limited by section one or actions upon judgments or decrees of courts of record of the United States or of this or of any o…

Section 20. A judgment or decree of a court of record of the United States or of any state thereof shall be presumed to be paid and satisfied at the expiration of twenty years after it was rendered.

Section 21. An action for the recovery of land shall be commenced, or an entry made thereon, only within twenty years after the right of action or of entry first accrued, or within twenty years after the demandant or the person making the entry, or those under whom they claim, ha…

Section 22. If such right or title first accrued to an ancestor or predecessor of the person who brings the action or makes the entry, or to any other person under whom he claims, the twenty years shall be computed from the time when the right or title so first accrued.

Section 28. No person shall be held to have been in possession of land within the meaning of this chapter merely by reason of having made an entry thereon, unless he has continued in open and peaceable possession thereof for one year next after such entry or unless an action has …

Section 29. If the right of entry or of action of a tenant in tail, or of a person entitled to a remainder in tail, is barred by this chapter, the estate tail and all remainders and reversions expectant thereon shall also be barred, as fully as they might have been by a conveyanc…

Section 2A. Except as otherwise provided, actions of tort, actions of contract to recover for personal injuries, and actions of replevin, shall be commenced only within three years next after the cause of action accrues.

Section 2B. Action of tort for damages arising out of any deficiency or neglect in the design, planning, construction or general administration of an improvement to real property, other than that of a public agency as defined in section thirty-nine A of chapter seven shall be com…

Section 2C. Actions commenced under the provisions of section eighty-five S of chapter two hundred and thirty-one shall be commenced only within two years next after the cause of action accrues, or within one year next after the discovery of the act, whichever is later.

Section 2D. Any action brought by or on behalf of any county, city, town, regional school district, housing authority or the commonwealth or any other political subdivision thereof to recover any costs associated with asbestos related corrective actions including, but not limited…

Section 2E. Notwithstanding the provisions of section two A, every cause of action for personal injury or death caused by the effects of the Dalkon Shield intrauterine device, so called, shall be brought against the Dalkon Shield Claimants Trust not later than one year from the d…

Section 2F. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, every cause of action concerning prescription opioids brought against Purdue Pharma L.P., Purdue Pharma Inc., or any of those companies' current or former owners, directors, officers or consultants shall be brought …

Section 3. Actions against sheriffs for the misconduct or negligence of their deputies shall be commenced only within four years next after the cause of action accrues.

Section 30. If a person entitled to recover land as a tenant in tail or as a remainderman dies before the expiration of the period hereinbefore limited for making an entry or commencing an action therefor, no person claiming any estate which the tenant in tail or remainderman mig…

Section 31. No action for the recovery of land shall be commenced by or in behalf of the commonwealth, except within twenty years after its right or title thereto first accrued, or within twenty years after it or those under whom it claims have been seized or possessed of the pre…

Section 31A. No proceeding based upon any right of entry for condition broken or possibility of reverter, to which a fee simple or fee simple determinable in land is subject, created before the second day of January, nineteen hundred and fifty-five, shall be maintained in any cou…

Section 32. If an action duly commenced within the time limited in this chapter is dismissed for insufficient service of process by reason of an unavoidable accident or of a default or neglect of the officer to whom such process is committed or is dismissed because of the death o…

Section 33. A power of sale in any mortgage of real estate shall not be exercised and an entry shall not be made nor possession taken nor proceeding begun for foreclosure of any such mortgage after the expiration of, in the case of a mortgage in which no term of the mortgage is s…

Section 34. No extension of the mortgage, and no acknowledgment that the mortgage is not satisfied, whether contained in a conveyance or in a separate instrument, shall be sufficient to extend the period specified in section thirty-three unless it is executed by one or more of th…

Section 35. For the purposes of this section and sections 33 and 34, the term ''mortgage'' includes any deed of trust or other conveyance made for the purpose of securing performance of a debt or obligation, and no proceeding shall be considered begun until a memorandum, as requi…

Section 36. The provisions of law relative to limitations of actions shall apply to a counterclaim by the defendant. The time of such limitation shall be computed as if an action had been commenced therefor at the time the plaintiff's action was commenced. Notwithstanding the pro…

Section 3A. Petitions founded upon claims against the commonwealth prosecuted under chapter two hundred and fifty-eight shall be brought only within three years next after the cause of action accrues; provided, however, that an action which relates to the sexual abuse of a minor,…

Section 4. Actions of contract or tort for malpractice, error or mistake against attorneys, certified public accountants and public accountants, actions for assault and battery, false imprisonment, slander, libel, actions against sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, constables or assignees…

Section 4A. Actions to recover back wages based upon any judicial interpretation of a state or federal statute differing from or overruling a previous interpretation of the same shall be commenced only within one year next after the date of such new judicial interpretation.

Section 4B. Actions of tort for bodily injuries or for death or for damages to property against the owner or operator of a motor vehicle, the operator of which failed to make himself or said owner known at the time of the accident or incident out of which such actions arise may, …

Section 4C. Actions of tort alleging the defendant sexually abused a minor shall be commenced within 35 years of the acts alleged to have caused an injury or condition or within 7 years of the time the victim discovered or reasonably should have discovered that an emotional or ps…

Section 4D. (a) A victim of trafficking of persons for sexual servitude under section 50 of chapter 265 or of trafficking of persons for forced services under section 51 of said chapter 265 may bring a civil action for trafficking of persons for forced labor or services or sexual…

Section 4E. (a) A victim of female genital mutilation pursuant to section 60 of chapter 265 may bring a civil action for female genital mutilation. The court may award actual damages, compensatory damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief or any other appropriate relief. A pre…

Section 5. Actions for penalties or forfeitures under penal statutes, if brought by a person to whom the penalty or forfeiture is given in whole or in part, shall be commenced only within one year next after the offence is committed. But if the penalty or forfeiture is given in w…

Section 5A. Actions arising on account of violations of any law intended for the protection of consumers, including but not limited to the following: chapter seventy-five C; chapter seventy-five D; section seven N of chapter ninety; sections twenty-one, twenty-one D, twenty-eight…

Section 5B. Actions arising on account of violations of any law intended for the protection of civil rights, including but not limited to actions alleging employment, housing and other discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed, national origin, sex, age, ancestry or handi…

Section 6. In an action of contract brought to recover the balance due upon a mutual and open account current, the cause of action shall be held to have accrued at the time of the last item proved in the account.

Section 7. If the person entitled thereto is a minor, or is incapacitated by reason of mental illness when a right to bring an action first accrues, the action may be commenced within the time hereinbefore limited after the disability is removed.

Section 8. If a person is disabled from commencing an action because he is a subject or citizen of a country which is at war with the United States, the time of the continuance of such war after the cause of action accrues shall be excluded in determining the period herein limite…

Section 9. If, when a cause of action hereinbefore mentioned accrues against a person, he resides out of the commonwealth, the action may be commenced within the time herein limited after he comes into the commonwealth; and if, after a cause of action has accrued, the person agai…