Massachusetts Statutes

Section 18. If, after examination, inspection and a hearing, they find that the improvements prayed for are required by the public convenience and necessity they shall so lay out and establish the same as to do as little injury as practicable, and if it is necessary to take priva…

Section 19. The commissioners shall assess the amount awarded as damages upon the persons for whose use the improvements are to be made, in proportion to the benefit to be received by each; but no person shall be assessed an amount greater than the benefit to be received by him. …

Section 2. One employee of the department of environmental protection designated by its commissioner, one employee of the department of food and agriculture designated by its commissioner, and one employee of the department of environmental management designated by its commission…

Section 20. If it is necessary to repair an improvement so made, a majority of the persons benefited by it may cause such repairs to be made, and may by bill in equity compel contribution on the basis of the award from the owner of each parcel of land for the use of which the imp…

Section 21. If the land mentioned in section fifteen lies entirely in one town, the petition may be made to the mayor and aldermen or selectmen thereof, who shall proceed thereon in all respects as above provided for county commissioners, except that they need not give notice to …

Section 22. The mayor and aldermen or selectmen shall each receive two dollars for each day's service upon such petition, and the city or town clerk shall receive for recording a petition or order thereon the fee provided by clause (68) of section thirty-four of chapter two hundr…

Section 23. A party aggrieved by the refusal of the mayor and aldermen or selectmen to make such order, may, within one year thereafter, petition the county commissioners, who shall thereupon proceed in all respects as though the petition had been originally filed with them.

Section 24. With the approval of the state reclamation board, hereinafter called the board, any city or town along the seacoast of the commonwealth may, in a city by vote of the city council and in a town by vote of the selectmen, establish a greenhead fly control project within …

Section 3. The board may investigate the question of utilizing wet lands, including meadows, swamps, marshes, beaches and other low lands, and may ascertain what lands, if any, may advantageously be drained for agricultural or industrial uses, the protection of the public health,…

Section 4. In carrying out the provisions of this chapter, the board may employ necessary engineers, assistants, or other agents, who may enter on land which the board desires to survey or examine. The board shall also be allowed other necessary expenses incurred in the performan…

Section 4A. The commonwealth, acting through one or more state departments, and any city, town or district, or any combination thereof, to the extent of their ownership of any area described in section one, may be parties, in their proprietary capacity, to proceedings under secti…

Section 5. The proprietors of any area described in section one or a majority in interest either in value or area may petition the board setting forth their desire to improve such area, the necessity or desirability of such improvements, the objects to be accomplished, a general …

Section 5A. If the board determines that the proposed improvements should be undertaken and that their construction and maintenance may be effected without the formation of a district, and in every such case where the board is petitioned by a body politic in its governmental capa…

Section 5B. The board of health of a city or town not included in an area designated by an identifying name for the purpose of section five A, or the commissioners appointed to make improvements on behalf of a mosquito control district under such a name, as provided in said secti…

Section 6. The district commissioners, in this and the ten following sections called the commissioners, after being sworn, shall call a meeting of the proprietors of the lands to be improved, by giving in such manner as the board may order, a notice to each known proprietor, sign…

Section 6A. Any district established under this chapter may pay a proper charge for effecting insurance providing an indemnity or protection of such district or of any officer or employee of such district, whose services as such is approved by the commissioners thereof, against l…

Section 7. As soon as the district shall have been organized under the provisions of section six the commissioners shall, under the direction of the board, cause the necessary surveys and investigations to be made and shall prepare a plan showing in detail the boundaries of the d…

Section 8. Should the board be of the opinion that a part of the expense of the improvements made under sections one to fourteen B, inclusive, should be paid by the commonwealth for the benefit of the public health of said commonwealth as a whole it shall estimate the amount whic…

Section 9. As soon as possible after the recording of the description, plan and estimate as provided in section seven, the commissioners shall request the clerk to call a meeting of the district for the purpose of deciding upon a method of financing such improvements in accordanc…

Section 1. A person may, as hereinafter provided, erect and maintain a water mill and a dam to raise water for working it, upon and across any stream not navigable.

Section 10. They shall also determine by their verdict what amount, if any, to be paid annually to the plaintiff, would be a just and reasonable compensation for the damages that may be thereafter caused by the dam, so long as it is used in conformity with the verdict; and also w…

Section 11. The plaintiff may, within three months after the verdict has been recorded elect, by a writing filed in the clerk's office, to take the amount so awarded in gross, instead of such annual compensation.

Section 12. The owner or occupant of the mill or dam shall, within three months after such election, pay to the plaintiff or secure to his satisfaction said amount with interest from the date of the verdict. After the expiration of said three months, and until payment of said dam…

Section 13. If the plaintiff does not file an election, as aforesaid, he and all persons claiming under him shall, so long as the dam is kept up and maintained, be entitled to receive from the owner or occupant of the mill the annual compensation so established by the jury, unles…

Section 14. The person who is entitled to receive said annual compensation or gross damages shall have a lien therefor, from the time of the commencement of the original action, on the mill and mill dam with their appurtenances and on the land under and adjoining the same and use…

Section 15. Such person may recover, in contract in the superior court from the person who owns or occupies the mill when the action is brought, the whole amount due and unpaid for the three years last preceding, and costs, although the amount recovered is less than one hundred d…

Section 16. The execution issued on such judgment, if not otherwise satisfied, may, within thirty days after judgment, be levied on the land so subject to the lien; and the officer may thereupon sell, in the manner provided for the sale of land on execution, such land or so much …

Section 17. A person who is entitled to the land so sold may redeem the same within one year after the sale, upon paying to the purchaser or to the person holding under him the amount paid therefor, with interest at the rate of twelve per cent a year.

Section 18. The party prevailing upon such action shall be entitled to costs, except as otherwise provided.

Section 19. No action shall be maintained at common law for the recovery of damages for the erection, maintenance or use of a mill or mill dam, if a remedy therefor is provided in this chapter.

Section 2. Such dam shall not be erected to the injury of a mill lawfully existing above or below it on the same stream, nor to the injury of a mill site on the same stream on which a mill or mill dam has been lawfully erected and used, unless the right to maintain a mill on such…

Section 20. This chapter shall not, except as herein expressly provided, affect the right to keep up, maintain and use any lawfully existing water mill and mill dam; but if the owner or occupant thereof makes any material change by raising the dam or by altering the machinery or …

Section 21. If either party is dissatisfied with the annual compensation established by proceedings upon a civil action under this chapter or corresponding provisions of earlier laws, a new action may be commenced for the increase or diminution of such compensation or for ascerta…

Section 22. Such new action may be maintained by and against either of the parties to the original action or by and against a person lawfully holding under either of them, but it shall not be brought until the expiration of one month after the payment of the year last preceding w…

Section 23. The owner of the mill or dam may, within said month, offer in writing to the owner of the land any increase of said annual compensation; and if the owner of the land does not agree to accept it, but brings an action to obtain an increase, he shall pay the costs, unles…

Section 24. The owner of the land may, within said month, offer in writing to the owner of the mill or dam to accept a smaller amount than that established as said annual compensation; and if the owner of the mill or dam does not agree to pay such reduced compensation, but brings…

Section 25. Such offers may be made by or to the respective tenants or occupants of the land and of the mill or dam, in like manner and with like effect as if made by or to the respective owners, except that no agreement founded thereon shall bind said owners unless made with the…

Section 26. If the offer so made by either party is accepted by the other, it shall establish the annual compensation to be thereafter paid, as if it had been established by a judgment in a civil action, if a memorandum of such offer and acceptance and of the agreement, signed by…

Section 27. If, upon an action by the owner of the land, the jury return a verdict that he is not entitled to any annual compensation, the judgment thereon shall not bar a new action for damages alleged to have arisen after such verdict and for compensation for damages thereafter…

Section 28. In every civil action brought by the owner of land alleged to be injured by a mill dam, the defendant may bring into court and there tender any amount which he considers proper to be paid to the plaintiff for the damages incurred up to the time of such tender, and may…

Section 29. If the plaintiff accepts the amount so offered for the past damage and for future annual compensation, he shall have judgment therefor and for costs to that time; or the plaintiff may accept either the amount tendered for past damages or the offer for future annual co…

Section 3. The height to which the water may be raised and the period of time for which it may be kept up in each year may be determined by jury.

Section 30. Two or more persons who are jointly or separately interested in the land injured may join in a civil action, and the jury may assess joint or several damages as the interest and title of the plaintiffs may require; and judgment and execution shall conform thereto.

Section 32. If a judgment for the plaintiff is reversed for error, the plaintiff, or any person claiming under him, may commence a new action for the same cause within one year after the reversal of the judgment, and recover all damages sustained during the three years last prece…

Section 33. If a person who owns, erects or maintains a water mill or a dam to raise water for working such mill upon or across a stream not navigable desires to raise, erect or maintain a dam at such a height or in such a manner as to overflow or otherwise injure an existing pub…

Section 34. Notice of the hearing upon such petition shall be given to the towns where the ways are situated, and to the owners or occupants of the land affected thereby, in like manner as notice of the laying out of highways is given.