Massachusetts Statutes

Section 4. If a person who has been duly summoned and required to attend as a witness under the preceding sections or section thirty-seven of chapter two hundred and eighteen fails, without a sufficient excuse, to attend, he shall be liable to the aggrieved party in tort for all …

Section 40. The courts may make rules regulating the time and manner of opening, filing and safe keeping of depositions, and the taking and use thereof.

Section 41. The deposition of a person without the commonwealth may be taken under a commission issued to one or more competent persons in another state or country by the court in which the cause is pending, or it may be taken before a commissioner appointed by the governor for t…

Section 42. Unless the court otherwise orders, a deposition taken before commissioners shall be taken upon written interrogatories, which shall be filed in the clerk's office and notice thereof given to the adverse party or his attorney, and upon cross interrogatories, if any are…

Section 43. The courts may make rules for the issuing of commissions, the filing of interrogatories and all other matters relative to depositions taken without the commonwealth.

Section 44. Depositions and affidavits taken without the commonwealth in any manner other than is provided in the three preceding sections, if taken before a notary public or other person authorized by the laws of any other state or country to take depositions, may be admitted or…

Section 45. A person may be summoned and compelled, in like manner and under the same penalties as are provided for a witness before a court, to give his deposition in a cause pending in a court of any other state or government. Such deposition may be taken before a justice of th…

Section 46. If a person desires to perpetuate his own testimony or the testimony of another person, he shall apply in writing to two justices of the peace or notaries public, or a justice of the peace and a notary public, one of whom shall be an attorney at law, requesting them t…

Section 47. The justices or notaries shall thereupon cause notice of the time and place appointed for taking the deposition to be given to all persons named in said statement as interested in the case, in the manner provided in sections twenty-six to twenty-nine, inclusive; and i…

Section 48. If at the time and place so appointed a witness or a person interested appears and objects, the justices or notaries shall not take the deposition unless upon hearing the parties they shall find that such testimony may be material to the petitioner and, except when th…

Section 49. The deponent shall be sworn and examined, and his deposition shall be written, read and subscribed in the manner provided in sections thirty to thirty-two, inclusive; and the justices or notaries shall sign and annex thereto a certificate of the name of the person at …

Section 5. Such failure to attend as a witness before a court, justice of the peace, master in chancery, master or auditor appointed by a court, or the county commissioners, shall also be a contempt of the court, and may be punished, in case of such failure to attend as a witness…

Section 50. The deposition, the certificate and the application of the petitioner shall, within ninety days after the taking of the deposition, be recorded in the registry of deeds in the county or district where the land lies, if the deposition relates to land; otherwise, in the…

Section 51. If, at the time of taking such deposition or afterward, an action is pending between the petitioner and the persons named in his application or any of those who were notified as aforesaid, or any persons claiming under any of said persons, relative to the title, claim…

Section 52. Depositions to perpetuate the testimony of persons living without the commonwealth may be taken without the commonwealth upon a commission issued by the supreme judicial or the superior court.

Section 53. The person who desires to take such deposition shall file in either of said courts the application provided for in section forty-six; and if the subject of the proposed deposition relates to land within the commonwealth, a copy of the application with the statement th…

Section 54. The court shall order notice of such application and statement to be served on all the persons named therein as adversely interested, and living within the commonwealth, fourteen days at least before the time therein appointed for hearing the parties, and shall order …

Section 55. If, upon hearing the parties who appear, the court finds that there is sufficient cause for taking the deposition, it shall issue a commission therefor in like manner as for taking a deposition to be used in a cause pending in the same court.

Section 56. The deposition shall be taken upon written interrogatories filed by the applicant, and cross interrogatories, if any are filed by any party adversely interested, and it shall be taken and returned substantially in the same manner as if taken to be used in a cause pend…

Section 57. The supreme judicial court may make rules for taking depositions to perpetuate the testimony of witnesses without the commonwealth, taken under a commission from the supreme judicial or the superior court, and for filing or recording them.

Section 58. Depositions to perpetuate the testimony of witnesses which are taken without the commonwealth under this chapter may be used in like manner as if taken within the commonwealth.

Section 59. Depositions to perpetuate the testimony of witnesses within or without the commonwealth, so that they may be evidence against all persons, may, after public notice, be taken upon a commission issued by the supreme judicial court or the superior court.

Section 6. The court, justice, master in chancery, master, auditor or county commissioners may in such case issue a warrant to bring such witness before them to answer for the contempt, and also to testify in the case in which he was summoned.

Section 60. The person who desires to have such deposition taken may apply to either of said courts in the manner provided in section fifty-three, and the proceedings thereon shall be the same as are provided in sections fifty-four to fifty-six, inclusive.

Section 61. The court shall, in addition to the proceedings before provided, require the applicant, upon oath or otherwise, in its discretion, to state the names of all persons known or supposed to be interested in the subject matter of the application, and shall in the commissio…

Section 62. After such deposition has been taken, it shall be returned to the court by whose order the commission issued, which, if the deposition is found to have been taken according to law and the directions contained in the commission, shall order it to be recorded within thi…

Section 63. A deposition taken and recorded under the provisions of the four preceding sections, or a certified copy thereof from the registry of deeds, may be used by the person at whose request it was taken, or by any person who claims under him, against any person whatever, in…

Section 64. In prosecutions under section nineteen of chapter two hundred and seventy-two in which the death of a woman is alleged to have resulted from the means therein described, her dying declarations shall be admissible in evidence.

Section 65. In any action or other civil judicial proceeding, a declaration of a deceased person shall not be inadmissible in evidence as hearsay or as private conversation between husband and wife, as the case may be, if the court finds that it was made in good faith and upon th…

Section 65A. If a party to an action who has filed answers to interrogatories under any applicable statute or any rule of the Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure dies, so much of such answers as the court finds have been made upon the personal knowledge of the deceased shall n…

Section 66. If a cause of action brought against an executor or administrator is supported by oral testimony of a promise or statement made by the testator or intestate of the defendant, evidence of statements, written or oral, made by the decedent, memoranda and entries written …

Section 67. Evidence in any proceeding seeking equitable relief shall be taken in the same manner as in actions at law, unless the court otherwise orders; but this section shall not prevent such use of affidavits as had been heretofore allowed.

Section 68. A signature to an attested instrument or writing, except a will, may be proved in the same manner as if it were not attested.

Section 69. The records and judicial proceedings of a court of another state or of the United States shall be admissible in evidence in this commonwealth, if authenticated by the attestation of the clerk or other officer who has charge of the records of such court under its seal.

Section 7. Witnesses may be summoned to attend and testify at a hearing before the executive council, or a committee thereof, as to matters within its authority. They shall be summoned in the same manner, be paid the same fees and in the same manner, and be subject to the same pe…

Section 70. The courts shall take judicial notice of the law of the United States or of any state, territory or dependency thereof or of a foreign country whenever the same shall be material.

Section 73. All oaths and affidavits administered or taken by a notary public, duly commissioned and qualified by authority of any other state or government, within the jurisdiction for which he is commissioned, and certified under his official seal, shall be as effectual in this…

Section 74. Acts of incorporation shall be held to be public acts and as such may be declared on and given in evidence.

Section 75. The printed copies of all statutes, acts and resolves of the commonwealth, public or private, which are published under its authority, and copies of the ordinances of a city, the by-laws of a town or of the rules and regulations of a board of aldermen, if attested by …

Section 76. Copies of books, papers, documents and records in any department of the commonwealth or of any city or town, authenticated by the attestation of the officer who has charge of the same, shall be competent evidence in all cases equally with the originals thereof; provid…

Section 76A. Photostatic or other copies of applications, reports, books, records, returns, papers or documents filed with the federal securities and exchange commission, or any successor thereof, pursuant to the provisions of the act of congress known as the Securities Act of 19…

Section 76B. Printed copies of schedules, classifications and tariffs of rates, fares and charges, and supplements to any such schedules, classifications and tariffs, filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission, which show an Interstate Commerce Commission number, and an effect…

Section 77. Copies from the records, books and accounts of a trust company, co-operative bank, national bank or savings bank, doing business in the commonwealth, shall be competent evidence in all cases, equally with the originals thereof, if there is annexed to such copies an af…

Section 77A. A statement of account of a bank showing payment of a check or other item, together with a legible copy of the check or other item, shall be competent evidence in all cases to constitute prima facie proof of the payment in the amount of the check or other item. For t…

Section 78. An entry in an account kept in a book or by a card system or by any other system of keeping accounts, or a writing or record, whether in the form of an entry in a book or otherwise, made as a memorandum or record of any act, transaction, occurrence or event, shall not…

Section 79. Records kept by hospitals, dispensaries or clinics, and sanatoria under section seventy of chapter one hundred and eleven shall be admissible, and records which the court finds are required to be kept by the laws of any other state or territory, or the District of Col…