Chapter 80A

Section 1. A board of officers, hereinafter called the board, upon whom authority to take real estate by eminent domain on behalf of the commonwealth or of any county, city, town or district thereof, hereinafter described as the body politic, has been conferred by law, for the pu…

Section 10. If the verdict of the jury as finally established shall differ from the award of the commissioners with respect to the compensation or damages to which any person is entitled, the report of the commissioners shall be amended accordingly, and, after all applications fo…

Section 11. The board may at any time before final judgment of condemnation abandon the proposed improvement and discontinue the proceedings, in which case all action taken thereunder and under the proceedings for the laying out or establishment of such improvement shall become v…

Section 12. The taking shall become absolute and the right of the body politic to the real estate or interest therein described in the petition and the right of the respondents to compensation or damages shall vest upon the entry of either final or interlocutory judgment of conde…

Section 13. If the petition is dismissed under section seven, costs, as in actions at law, shall be awarded to the respondents, in addition to indemnity for loss and damages as provided in section eleven. If, upon entry of an interlocutory or final judgment of condemnation it app…

Section 14. If the right to assess betterments has been established, the board, within six months after the completion of the improvement, shall assess a proportionate share of the whole or part of the cost thereof upon each parcel of land with respect to which a benefit or advan…

Section 15. The provisions of chapters seventy-nine and eighty, and all other provisions of law relative to proceedings under said chapters, shall apply to proceedings under this chapter, and to betterments assessed thereunder, so far as applicable and not inconsistent with the p…

Section 16. In any case where the commonwealth, or a county, city, town or district thereof, has been or shall be authorized by provisions of general or special law to take real estate or any interest therein by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine, the officer or board of o…

Section 2. The board, having first complied with all the preliminary requirements prescribed by law, shall adopt an order of intention to take, which shall contain a description of the property to be taken sufficiently accurate for identification, and shall state the interest the…

Section 3. The order shall contain an estimate of all damages sustained by every person in his property by reason of such taking as of the date of the adoption of the order, and shall contain an estimate of the cost of the improvement, including such damages, and, if betterments …

Section 4. Within ten days from the recording of such order, plan and estimate, the board shall cause to be filed in the superior court of the county in which such proposed public improvement or the major part thereof is situated a petition on behalf and in the name of the body p…

Section 5. Any of said respondents, and any other person claiming an interest in any of the land to be taken, damaged or assessed by or on account of said improvement, may appear and file an answer within thirty days after the return day of the petition. In such answer he may (1)…

Section 6. The court shall, on motion of the petitioner, enter a default against all persons served with process or who otherwise appear to have seasonably received personal notice of the petition and who have not appeared and answered within the time prescribed. The court shall …

Section 7. If any person in his answer denies the right of the petitioner to make the improvement or to take or damage his property, or to levy an assessment thereon, or impugns the validity or regularity of the proceedings, the court shall forthwith hear and determine the issue …

Section 8. If the court shall enter an order establishing the right of the petitioner to take the real estate, or interest therein, described in the order for the purpose therein stated and to assess betterments as therein set forth, and any person has in his answer denied the su…

Section 9. Any person aggrieved by the determination of the commissioners with respect to his compensation or damages may have a redetermination thereof by a jury by making application therefor within twenty days after the sending of the notice of the filing of the commissioners'…