Massachusetts Statutes

Section 19B. As used in sections nineteen C and nineteen D, the following words shall, unless the context requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— ''Automatic telephone dialing system'', any automatic terminal equipment which is capable of storing numbers to be called or…

Section 19C. Any person who is a customer of a common carrier and who wishes not to receive telephone calls from an automatic telephone dialing system may notify such common carrier which provides telephone exchange service that he does not wish to receive such calls. The departm…

Section 19D. Any automatic telephone dialing system sold in the commonwealth shall be designed to prevent the selection or dialing of any telephone numbers listed pursuant to section nineteen C. Any person using an automatic telephone dialing system shall prevent such system from…

Section 19E. No person shall solicit a sale or order for sale of goods or services at the residence of a prospective buyer by means of a telephone without expressly revealing at the time the person initially contacts the prospective buyer, and before making any other statement, e…

Section 19F. (a) Notwithstanding section 19, a common carrier furnishing service described in clause (d) of section 12 may post on its website the rates, terms and conditions of any retail service it offers, renders or furnishes within the commonwealth. Section 19 shall not apply…

Section 2. Every such carrier who wilfully neglects or refuses to comply with the preceding section shall forfeit not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars, to the person offering the property for transportation.

Section 20. Whenever the department receives notice of any changes proposed to be made in any schedule filed by any common carrier not furnishing the service of transmission of intelligence by electricity under this chapter, it may, either upon complaint or upon its own motion, a…

Section 21. Wherever there is no satisfactory through route for the transportation of passengers or freight at a reasonable rate, the department may order, after notice and a public hearing had upon complaint, any two or more railroad or railway companies whose lines, owned, oper…

Section 22. The department may from time to time require railroad and railway corporations to install and maintain at such places upon the railroad or railway premises as it shall designate such block or other signals or devices as it shall approve for the purpose of safeguarding…

Section 23. If the department is of opinion that repairs are necessary upon any railroad or railway, or that an addition to its rolling stock, or an addition to or change or relocation of its stations or station houses or waiting rooms, or a change in its rates of fares for trans…

Section 24. Upon written complaint, relative to the service or charges for service in, to or from any city or town as rendered or made by any company engaged therein in the transmission of intelligence by electricity, by the mayor or selectmen, or by twenty customers of the compa…

Section 25. The department shall give seasonable notice by mail to any member of the general court of any hearing before the department concerning common carriers upon a matter affecting the interests of the district represented by him.

Section 26. The department may investigate and determine the fair value for any purpose of all the property of any common carrier rendering a public service subject to the supervision of the department, actually used or useful for the convenience of the public, whenever it deems …

Section 27. The department may, either through its members or responsible agents, engineers, inspectors or examiners duly authorized by it, enter upon any premises occupied by any carrier subject to its jurisdiction for any purpose consistent with this chapter. It may inspect the…

Section 28. Every railroad corporation, railway company and carrier of passengers for hire by motor vehicle under the jurisdiction of the department shall give immediate notice of an accident on its railroad or railway or on or connected with a motor vehicle belonging to it, resu…

Section 29. An inspector shall, under the direction of the department, investigate as promptly as may be any accident upon a railroad, railway or motor vehicle of a carrier of passengers under the jurisdiction of the department, or in which such railroad, railway or motor vehicle…

Section 3. No common carrier of passengers shall, by rule, regulation, sign or otherwise, require passengers whom it suffers to enter, or leave by, a door of its car or train, to do so at their own risk; and no such passenger shall be prevented from recovering compensation in dam…

Section 30. An employee may make written complaint to the department of a defect in the ways, works, machinery or appliances, or any car or vehicle, of a railroad, railway or other carrier of passengers under its jurisdiction, and the name of the complainant shall not be divulged…

Section 31. The department may, from time to time, prescribe forms of accounts, records and memoranda for the common carriers under its supervision, or for such classes of common carriers as it shall establish. The forms shall conform as nearly as may be to those established by t…

Section 32. The department shall prescribe the forms for the annual returns to be made to it by the several kinds of common carriers and may from time to time make changes and additions in any such form; provided, that changes therein or additions thereto requiring any alteration…

Section 33. Every person doing an express business upon either a railroad or railway in the commonwealth shall annually transmit to the department a return on oath of his doings setting forth copies of all contracts made during the year with other persons doing a transportation o…

Section 34. The department, through its commissioners or by employees duly authorized, may examine all books, contracts, records, documents, papers and memoranda of any common carrier, and by subpoena duces tecum compel the production thereof, or of duly verified copies of the sa…

Section 34A. (a) The department shall have general supervision of every affiliated company, as hereinafter defined, with respect to all relations, transactions and dealings, direct or indirect, with the carrier with which it is affiliated which affect the operations of such carri…

Section 35. Upon the written application of a director, or of any person owning one fiftieth part of the paid-in capital stock of a corporation or company operating a railroad or railway, or who owns the bonds or other evidences of indebtedness of such corporation or company equa…

Section 36. The department may provide for an annual audit by employees duly authorized by it of all accounts of any common carrier or class of common carriers.

Section 37. Every order of the department shall be served upon every person or corporation to be affected thereby, either by personal delivery of a certified copy thereof, or by mailing a certified copy thereof, in a sealed package, postage prepaid, to the person to be affected t…

Section 38. No request or advice of the department shall in any manner impair the legal duties and obligations of a railroad corporation or railway company or its legal liability for the consequences of its acts or of the neglect or mismanagement of any of its agents or servants.

Section 39. If in the judgment of the department any common carrier violates or neglects in any respect to comply with the provisions of any law, and after written notice by the department continues such violation or neglect, or neglects to make returns as required by law, or to …

Section 4. A corporation engaged in carrying passengers or in transporting freight for hire shall not require or receive from a person who is employed or about to be employed by it a bond or other security, either with or without surety, to indemnify such corporation against loss…

Section 40. Whenever the department is of opinion that a common carrier subject to its supervision is failing or omitting or about to fail or omit to do anything required of it by law or by order of the department, or is doing anything or about to do anything or permitting anythi…

Section 41. The department may be represented at any public hearing before any legislative committee or public board in the commonwealth, or of any other state or of the United States, with respect to any proposed legislation or action by public authorities within or without the …

Section 43. The department shall make an annual report including such statements, facts and explanations as will describe the actual working of the system of carriers under its supervision in its bearing upon the business and prosperity of the commonwealth, with such tables and a…

Section 44. Any employee or agent of the department who divulges any fact or information coming to his knowledge during the course of any examination or audit under this chapter, except in so far as he may be directed by the department, or by a court or judge, or be authorized by…

Section 5. Every association of persons who are not inhabitants of this commonwealth which does an express business therein shall in writing appoint a person, who is a citizen and a resident thereof, to be a general agent, upon whom all lawful processes against such persons may b…

Section 50. Any corporation which owns or operates a railroad, railway, electric railroad or elevated railway shall, upon any increase of its capital stock, except as provided in the following section, offer the new shares proportionately to its stockholders at such price, not le…

Section 51. If such increase does not exceed four per cent of the existing capital stock of the company, the directors, without first offering the same to the stockholders, may sell the shares by auction to the highest bidder, at not less than the par value thereof, to be actuall…

Section 52. The determination by the department, under the provisions of section forty-eight of chapter one hundred and sixty and section twenty-eight of chapter one hundred and sixty-one, as to the amount of stock which is reasonably necessary for the purpose for which such stoc…

Section 53. In computing the amount of capital stock of a railroad corporation, electric railroad, railway or elevated railway company in order to determine the maximum amount of bonds, coupon notes or other evidences of indebtedness, payable at periods of more than twelve months…

Section 54. A lease or purchase and sale of the franchise and property of a railroad corporation, or railway company, and a consolidation of two or more railroad corporations, or railway companies, or a contract that either corporation or company shall perform all the transportat…

Section 57. A railway shall not be constructed across the tracks of a railroad nor shall a railroad be constructed across the tracks of a railway at the same level therewith without the consent of the department.

Section 58. In any case in which the consent or approval of the department required by law for any crossing at grade is given, it may, after notice to the parties interested and a hearing, impose conditions, limitations, restrictions and regulations relative to such crossing, its…

Section 59. If a public way and a railroad cross each other, and the board of aldermen of the city or the selectmen of the town where the crossing is situated, or the department of highways, if the crossing and its approaches are in direct continuation of a state highway, or the …

Section 6. Such general agent shall give bond to the state treasurer, with one or more sureties to be approved by him, in the sum of two thousand dollars, conditioned that he will accept service of all lawful process against his principal.

Section 60. If it is decided that the location of the railroad or of the way shall be changed, land or other property may be taken therefor by eminent domain on behalf of the railroad corporation, the commonwealth, the county or the city or town, as the case may be, under chapter…

Section 61. A commission of three disinterested persons, appointed as provided in the following section, shall determine which party shall carry such decision into effect and which party shall pay the charges and expenses of making such alteration and the future charges for keepi…

Section 62. Unless the parties in interest agree as provided in section sixty-one, upon application of the county commissioners, the department, the department of highways, the board of aldermen, the selectmen or the directors of the railroad corporation or of the railway company…