Massachusetts Statutes

Section 45. If a person adjudged a trustee does not, upon demand, pay over to the officer goods, effects or credits sufficient to satisfy the execution and if the execution is not otherwise satisfied, the plaintiff may commence an action in the court in which the judgment was ren…

Section 46. If a trustee duly served with a summons and complaint issued under the previous section fails to appear and answer, he shall be defaulted; and if he did not answer, and was not examined in the original action, judgment shall be rendered against him upon such default f…

Section 47. If a trustee defaulted in an action brought under section forty-five has answered or been examined in the original action, judgment shall be rendered upon the facts stated in such answer or examination for any part remaining in his hands of the goods, effects or credi…

Section 48. In a proceeding brought under section forty-five, if the trustee appears and answers, he may be examined; but if he has been examined in the original action, he shall be examined again only by order of the court. A trustee may prove any matter necessary or proper for …

Section 49. No action provided under section forty-five shall be brought against a person adjudged a trustee unless he is served within two years after judgment in the original action; or, if the money or other thing is not payable when the judgment is rendered, unless he is serv…

Section 4A. Whenever the venue of an action in a district court is based upon the residence or usual place of business of an alleged trustee, which action could not otherwise be properly brought in that district, the court may on motion of any party thereto transfer such action f…

Section 4B. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, in an action to enforce a support order pursuant to section thirty-six A of chapter two hundred and eight, the action shall be brought in the court which issued the order for alimony, maintenance or child sup…

Section 5. The trustee summons shall be served in accordance with the applicable rule of court.

Section 50. If a person summoned as trustee in his own right dies before the judgment recovered by the plaintiff has been fully satisfied, the goods, effects and credits in his hands at the time of the attachment shall remain bound thereby, and his executor or administrator shall…

Section 51. If a person so summoned dies before judgment in the original action, his executor or administrator may appear voluntarily or may be cited to appear, as in other cases. The further proceedings shall then be conducted in the same manner as if the executor or administrat…

Section 52. If the executor or administrator does not appear, the plaintiff, instead of suggesting the death of the trustee, may take judgment against him by default or otherwise as if he were living, and the executor or administrator shall pay upon the execution the amount which…

Section 53. If a person summoned as trustee dies after judgment in the original action, his executor or administrator may pay upon the execution the amount which the deceased would have been liable to pay were he living, and he shall be discharged from all further demands on acco…

Section 54. If a person, against whom as trustee execution has been issued, is not living at the expiration of thirty days after final judgment in the trustee process, a demand, for the purpose of holding the attachment, may be made upon the executor or administrator of such dece…

Section 55. If an executor or administrator as such is adjudged a trustee, the execution shall not be served on his own goods or estate nor on his person, and he shall be liable for the amount in his hands only in like manner and to the same extent as he would have been liable to…

Section 56. If, after final judgment against an executor or administrator for a sum certain due from him as trustee, he fails to pay the same, the original plaintiff in the trustee process shall have the same remedy for recovering the amount, either upon a suggestion of waste or …

Section 57. If a person is charged as trustee by reason of personal property other than money, which he holds or is bound to deliver to the defendant, he shall deliver it, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to the officer holding the execution, who shall sell the property an…

Section 58. The value of any property so delivered shall be ascertained and fixed, as between the trustee and defendant, in like manner and upon the same principles as if delivered to the defendant. Upon application of either party, the court may, pending the original action or c…

Section 59. If a person summoned as trustee is bound by contract to deliver specific property to the defendant at a certain time and place within the commonwealth, he shall not be required by reason of the trustee process to deliver it at any other time or place; and he may, notw…

Section 6. When a foreign corporation having a usual place of business in the commonwealth is summoned as a trustee in an action against one of its employees, service of the summons may be made as provided in section thirty-eight or thirty-nine of chapter two hundred and twenty-t…

Section 60. If the court finds that property in the hands of a person summoned as trustee is mortgaged, pledged or in any way liable for the payment of a debt to the person so summoned, it may allow the attaching creditor to pay or tender the amount due to the trustee, who shall …

Section 61. If the court finds that the property is held for any purpose other than to secure the payment of money and that the contract, condition or other thing to be performed is such that it can be performed by the attaching creditor without damage to the other parties, it ma…

Section 62. Property received by an officer under either of the two preceding sections shall be sold and disposed of as if it had been taken on execution, except that from the proceeds of the sale the officer shall repay to the attaching creditor the amount paid by him to the tru…

Section 63. The preceding sections shall not prevent the trustee from selling the property in his hands for payment of the claim for which it is mortgaged, pledged or otherwise liable at any time before the amount due him is paid or tendered as provided in section sixty or sixty-…

Section 64. If a trustee refuses or neglects to deliver any property in his hands when lawfully required by the officer serving the execution, he shall, after deducting the amount of any lien he has on such property, be liable to the plaintiff in a proceeding under section forty-…

Section 65. When a common carrier, summoned as trustee in a civil action, has in his or its possession goods shipped by or consigned to a defendant in such action, such carrier, in the absence of collusion or fraud on his or its part, shall not, except as otherwise provided in ch…

Section 66. A person having an interest by assignment or otherwise in money or credits attached by the trustee process in an action against another may, at any time before final judgment, dissolve such attachment or a part thereof by giving bond, in a sum not exceeding the damage…

Section 67. After the filing of such bond, the trustee may deliver to the person by whom or in whose behalf as principal the bond was given the money or other thing in his hands, or that part thereof to which the bond applies, and shall not after such delivery be liable to the pl…

Section 68. A person summoned as a trustee in the supreme judicial or superior court, who appears and answers pursuant to this chapter, shall be allowed his costs for travel and term fees, and such further amount for counsel fees and other necessary expenses as the court may allo…

Section 69. If a person is adjudged a trustee, his costs and charges shall be deducted from the goods, effects and credits in his hands, and he shall be chargeable for the balance only to be paid on the execution. If such goods, effects and credits are not of sufficient value to …

Section 7. If co-partners are summoned as trustees and the partnership is properly described in the trustee summons, service of the trustee summons upon one partner shall be sufficient.

Section 70. If a person summoned as trustee is discharged, he shall have judgment and execution for his costs and charges against the plaintiff.

Section 71. If a person so summoned is out of the commonwealth at the time of service of process upon him and appears and answers within ten days of his return, he shall be allowed his costs and charges.

Section 72. If a person so summoned does not dwell or have a usual place of business in the county where the action is brought, he shall, if he appears at any time in the original action or in a proceeding under section forty-five, be allowed his costs and charges, which shall be…

Section 73. A person so summoned, who dwells or has a usual place of business in the county where the action is brought and who neglects, without sufficient reason, to appear and answer within the time provided, shall be liable, if the plaintiff recovers judgment and does not oth…

Section 74. If a person so summoned does not pay the costs when demanded by the officer serving the execution, the officer shall state the fact in his return, and if it also appears by the return that the costs have not been paid, the court shall award a new execution against him…

Section 75. If several persons are summoned as trustees who are liable for costs under any provision of the two preceding sections, the second execution shall be awarded against them jointly; and if any one pays more than his proportion, the others shall contribute equally to ind…

Section 76. If, while an action by the trustee process is pending, the original defendant therein or any other person brings an action against the alleged trustee to recover the goods, effects or credits or any part thereof in his hands or possession, costs in the later action sh…

Section 77. If a person summoned as trustee, who dwells or has a usual place of business in the county where the action is brought, is defaulted in the original action, and if a proceeding under section forty-five is brought against him, he shall be liable out of his own goods an…

Section 78. He shall not be liable for costs under section seventy-seven, nor shall he be entitled to recover costs, if the court finds that he had goods, effects or credits in his hands liable to attachment, and has paid and delivered, on the execution issued on the original jud…

Section 79. He shall not be liable for costs under section seventy-seven if he was prevented from appearing in the original action by his absence from the commonwealth or by any other sufficient cause, but the court may allow him his costs as if he had appeared in the original ac…

Section 8. The plaintiff may at any time insert the names of other trustees in the summons, and cause the summons to be served upon them; and after service upon a trustee, a plaintiff may cause the summons to be again served upon the same trustee in the same manner and with the s…

Section 80. If a person summoned as trustee is held liable to pay from his own estate the costs as before provided, and if he is at the same time liable for the plaintiff's costs in the original action, one execution shall be issued against him for both amounts.

Section 81. If several trustees are liable in an action brought under section forty-five and the plaintiff fails to join all of the trustees in one action, he shall recover no more costs than if he had so joined them, and the court may apportion the costs among all the trustees l…

Section 82. If an adverse claimant is admitted as a party, the court may award costs between him, the plaintiff and the supposed trustee, or any of them.

Section 83. If the damages recovered in an action brought under trustee process do not exceed ten dollars, exclusive of all costs in any former action, the plaintiff shall recover no costs.

Section 9. The plaintiff may proceed in the action against the defendant if the defendant has been served with process although all the trustees have been discharged.