Massachusetts Statutes

Section 21. The chief justice may, by written order to the sheriff, order a special jury for a sitting for criminal business to be held in any county at such time and place as may be appointed in such order. The sheriff shall give notice thereof as directed in the order therefor;…

Section 22. Every Monday shall be a return day in the superior court department for the entry of suits upon recognizances and bonds in criminal cases held in the district court department. Such suits may be made returnable at the election of the district attorney at any such retu…

Section 23. The chief justice may, by written order to the sheriff, cause the grand jury in any county to be assembled at a time and place appointed therein.

Section 24. At a sitting of the court at which criminal business may be transacted, cases arising under chapters one hundred and nineteen, two hundred and forty-eight, one hundred and thirty-eight, one hundred and thirty-nine and two hundred and seventy-three shall have precedenc…

Section 25. If a case is on trial at the end of a sitting, such sitting may be continued, and jurors serving in such case may be required to serve until the case is finished.

Section 26. The records of courts, including electronic records, which are transferred to the superior court shall remain in custody of the clerks, whether in physical or electronic form. In Suffolk county, the clerk of said court for civil business shall have the custody of said…

Section 26A. The superior court may, upon the application of either party, order a jury-waived civil action where any right, title or interest in land is involved, including actions for specific performance of contracts, removed to the land court for trial and disposition. Upon t…

Section 29. A prisoner held in jail for trial upon an indictment for an offence not punishable by death or by imprisonment for life, or so held upon an appeal, at any time except during a sitting of the superior court for criminal business in the county where he is held, may peti…

Section 3. The court shall have exclusive original jurisdiction of civil actions for the foreclosure of mortgages, and of real and mixed actions, except those of which the land court or district courts have jurisdiction, of complaints for flowing lands, and of claims against the …

Section 30. In any action or proceeding involving or arising under section twenty B, twenty C or twenty-four of chapter one hundred and forty-nine, or section six or six A of chapter two hundred and fourteen, the chief justice shall designate three associate justices to hear and …

Section 3A. (a) A clerk-magistrate in the superior court shall not accept for filing a complaint or other pleading which commences a civil action for money damages, except as otherwise provided by law, unless it is accompanied by a statement signed, by hand or by electronic means…

Section 4. The court shall have original jurisdiction of all civil actions, except those of which other courts have exclusive original jurisdiction.

Section 5. The court shall have jurisdiction of all civil actions and proceedings which are legally brought before it by appeal or removal.

Section 6. The court shall have original jurisdiction of all crimes. Crimes committed in that part of Scituate described in chapter three hundred and ninety-four of the acts of nineteen hundred and twelve shall be within the territorial jurisdiction of the court both in Norfolk c…

Section 7. The clerk of the courts for the county in which an indictment for a capital crime has been entered, or, in the county of Suffolk, the clerk of the superior court for criminal business, shall forthwith send notice thereof, with a copy of the indictment, to the chief or …

Section 8. If an appeal or a bill of exceptions in a case, civil or criminal, has been duly entered in the appeals court or supreme judicial court, any security taken in the case, by bond, attachment or otherwise, shall stand as if no judgment had been entered or exception taken …

Section 9. Orders or decrees of the supreme judicial court upon questions arising in a case pending in the superior court shall be entered of record in the superior court, and such case shall be disposed of as law and justice require, conformably to the rescript or order of the s…

Section 1. In case of a vacancy in the office of chief justice of the supreme judicial or the superior court, or of his illness or absence, his duties shall be performed by the senior justice present and qualified to act.

Section 10. If public business requires, either court may adjourn an established sitting in one shire town to another in the same county. Persons, recognizances and processes required to appear at or to be returned to the established sitting shall appear at, be returnable to and …

Section 11. If no justice is present at the time and place appointed for holding a court at the beginning of a sitting or at an adjournment thereof, the sheriff of the county or any of his deputies may adjourn the court from day to day or from time to time, as circumstances requi…

Section 12. In such case, any justice may by a written order require the sheriff or his deputy to adjourn the court without day or to the time expressed in the order; and the officer shall adjourn the court accordingly by public proclamation in the court house.

Section 13. Each court may establish a seal and appoint all officers necessary for the transaction of its business.

Section 1A. Unless otherwise specifically provided, the superior court shall have original jurisdiction, concurrently with the supreme judicial court, of all proceedings, cases and matters of which the supreme judicial court has jurisdiction, excepting those within the appellate …

Section 1B. Questions of law arising in any proceeding of which jurisdiction is vested in the superior court by section one A may be reserved and reported to the appeals court for the consideration of that court in the manner provided in section one hundred and eleven of chapter …

Section 2. If, in the opinion of a justice of either court, it is important that a writ or other process should be speedily issued in a cause pending in the court of which he is a justice, he may order it to be issued by the clerk of the courts in the county in which he is sittin…

Section 3. The courts shall, respectively, make and promulgate uniform codes of rules, consistent with law, for regulating the practice and conducting the business of such courts in cases not expressly provided for by law, for the following purposes: First, Simplifying and shorte…

Section 3A. Copies of the rules, as provided for in section three, shall be printed at the expense of the commonwealth from such sums as may be appropriated therefor and expended under the direction of the chief justices. There may be included such notes and annotations, if any, …

Section 4. The courts shall always be open in every county and the business thereof, or of the justices thereof, may be transacted at any time; but such business shall not, except as provided in section six of chapter two hundred and twenty, be transacted on Saturday or Sunday or…

Section 5. The courts and the justices thereof, respectively, may in any county transact any business of such courts and direct the entry of any order, judgment or decree in an action, suit or proceeding pending in the same court in another county.

Section 6. Regular sittings of the courts for the transaction of civil or criminal business shall commence on the day appointed therefor and end on the day preceding the day appointed for the commencement of the next regular sitting in such county for the transaction of the same …

Section 7. Two or more simultaneous sessions of the court may be held in the same shire town or in different shire towns in the same county, if public convenience requires; and the business may be so divided as to secure its speedy and convenient disposal.

Section 8. The courts shall, respectively, receive, examine and allow accounts for services and expenses incident to their sittings and order payment thereof out of the state treasury.

Section 9. The justices of each court, except as otherwise provided, shall make such arrangements for the attendance of a justice at the several times and places appointed for holding their court as will be most convenient and as will insure the prompt performance of their duties…

Section 1. The supreme judicial and superior courts shall have original and concurrent jurisdiction of all cases and matters of equity cognizable under the general principles of equity jurisprudence and, with reference thereto, shall be courts of general equity jurisdiction, exce…

Section 10. A justice of either court or the full court may, if necessary, hear and determine cases pending in a county other than that in which such justice or court is sitting, or any motion therein; but a motion shall not be so heard nor an order so made until reasonable notic…

[There is no 214:10A.]

Section 10B. Upon a petition commenced after the death of the donor for the application cy pres to similar public charitable purposes of a gift for a public charitable purpose which has become impossible or impracticable of fulfillment, the court may exercise jurisdiction without…

Section 11. The supreme judicial court, upon request of a party to a civil action in which equitable relief is sought, may frame issues of fact to be tried by a jury and order the same to be tried in that court or in the superior court in the county in which such cause is pending…

Section 12. If there is no regular sitting of the supreme judicial court within three months after the framing of such issues, a justice thereof may order the clerk of the courts for the county in which the cause is pending to summon a jury to try such issues, and the proceedings…

Section 13. The superior court, upon request of a party to a civil action in which equitable relief is sought pending therein, may frame issues of fact to be tried by a jury and order them to be tried in the county in which such cause is pending.

Section 14. A justice of the supreme judicial court and a justice of the superior court shall, at all convenient times, sit in Boston to hear and determine civil actions in which equitable relief is sought and motions therein arising in any county.

Section 15. A justice of either court shall not dissolve an injunction issued by the other court, or by a justice thereof, or interpose in any action in which equitable relief is sought pending before the other court, except as provided in sections one hundred and fifteen, one hu…

Section 16. The courts may issue writs of seisin and execution in common form if such process is appropriate for the enforcement of a judgment granting or denying equitable relief.

Section 17. Where a bond is required of a receiver appointed by either court the provisions of section seven of chapter two hundred and three shall apply.

Section 18. The original papers in a civil action pending in either court may be taken from the files in any county by counsel of record of either party, for use before the court, upon leaving a memorandum and receipt on such files, containing a short description of the papers so…

Section 1A. The fact that the plaintiff has a remedy in damages shall not bar an action for specific performance of a contract, other than one for purely personal services, if the court finds that no other existing remedy, or the damages recoverable thereby is in fact the equival…