Massachusetts Statutes

Section 5. If, after such notice, a person whose consent is required does not appear and object to the adoption, the court may act upon the petition without his consent, subject to his right of appeal, or it may appoint a guardian ad litem with power to give or withhold consent.

Section 5A. Upon the filing of a petition for adoption of a child under the age of fourteen, notice shall be given to the department of children and families which shall make appropriate inquiry to determine the condition and antecedents of the child for the purpose of ascertaini…

Section 5B. In making orders for adoption, the judge shall consider the need of the child for loving and responsible parental care and all factors relevant to the physical, mental and moral health of the child. If, at the time of surrender of the child for adoptive custody, the p…

Section 5C. All petitions for adoption, all reports submitted thereunder and all pleadings, papers or documents filed in connection therewith, docket entries in the permanent docket and record books shall not be available for inspection, unless a judge of probate of the county wh…

Section 5D. (a) A placement agency, as defined in section 1A of chapter 15D, holding records relating to an adopted person, the biological parents of an adopted person or the adoptive parents of an adopted person shall: (1) release to such adopted person, if he has reached the ag…

Section 5E. The department of children and families shall submit a report detailing the number and nature, as defined jointly by department and the University of Massachusetts center for adoption research and policy in Worcester, of adoptions processed by the department during ea…

Section 6. If the court is satisfied of the identity and relations of the persons, and that the petitioner is of sufficient ability to bring up the child and provide suitable support and education for it, and that the child should be adopted, it shall make a decree, by which, exc…

Section 6A. The court shall forthwith, following the making of a decree of adoption, issue to the petitioner, or petitioners, a certificate of adoption setting forth all the facts relating to the adopting parent, or parents, as appearing in the statement required to be filed by s…

Section 6B. In the event that either of the petitioning adopting parents to a petition for adoption, which has been filed with the probate court, should die prior to the entry of a decree of adoption, the probate court may enter a decree within three months following the date of …

Section 6C. (a) Prior to the entry of an adoption decree, prospective adoptive parents and a birth parent may enter into an agreement for post-adoption contact or communication between or among a minor to be adopted, the prospective adoptive parents and the birth parents. Such ag…

Section 6D. A party to a court-approved agreement for post-adoption contact or communication may seek to enforce the agreement by commencing a civil action for specific performance. A court order for specific performance of the terms of a post-adoption contact agreement shall be …

Section 6E. Nothing contained in sections 6C and 6D shall be construed to abrogate the right of an adoptive parent to make decisions on behalf of his child.

Section 9. A person adopted in another state or country, in accordance with the laws thereof, shall upon proof of such fact be entitled in this commonwealth to the same rights of succession to property by grant, trust settlement, entail, devise, bequest, or by intestacy as he wou…

Section 1. All estates of freehold in fee simple, fee tail or for life may be recovered in a civil action.

Section 10. Non-tenure, disclaimer, several tenancy and sole tenancy may be pleaded in answer.

Section 11. The plaintiff may recover any specific part or undivided portion of the land to which he proves a sufficient title, although less than demanded in the complaint.

Section 12. If the plaintiff recovers judgment, he shall recover in the same action, subject to the limitations provided in this chapter, damages for rents and profits of the land from the time when his title accrued and for any destruction or waste of the buildings or other prop…

Section 13. Rents and profits for which the defendant is liable shall be the clear annual value of the land while he was in possession thereof, after deducting all lawful taxes and assessments on the land paid by him and all necessary and ordinary expenses of cultivating the land…

Section 14. In determining rents and profits, the value of the use by the defendant of any improvements made by him or by those under whom he claims shall be excluded.

Section 15. The defendant shall not be liable for rents and profits for any time more than six years prior to the commencement of the action or for waste or damage committed before said six years, unless rents and profits are allowed to diminish the defendant's recovery upon his …

Section 16. If the land demanded has been actually held and possessed by the defendant and by those under whom he claims for six years next before the commencement of the action, he shall, if judgment is against him, be entitled to compensation as hereinafter provided for the val…

Section 17. The defendant shall also be entitled to like compensation although the land has not been so held for six years, if he holds it under a title which he had reason to believe good.

Section 18. The defendant may interpose a counterclaim for the value of such improvements.

Section 2. A civil action to recover freehold estates in fee simple, fee tail or for life may be prosecuted against the commonwealth under this chapter.

Section 20. The amount recovered by the defendant upon such counterclaim shall not exceed the amount actually expended by the defendant and those under whom he claims, nor shall it exceed the amount by which the value of the land is actually increased thereby as assessed at the t…

Section 21. Except as provided in sections twenty-two to twenty-four, inclusive, and in section twenty-six, if there is a trial in the land court, it shall at the same time assess the amounts due the plaintiff for rents and profits or other damages, if any, and shall determine th…

Section 22. If trial by jury shall be demanded and if issues therefor are to be framed to obtain an assessment of the amounts due to the plaintiff for rents and profits or other damages, or a determination of the amount to be allowed to the defendant for improvements, or of the v…

Section 23. If issues are postponed under the preceding section, and if, on its trial of the title, the land court shall make a finding or decision in favor of the plaintiff, that court shall, on motion of either party, made before its finding or decision on the title is recorded…

Section 24. If issues have been postponed under section twenty-two, and if, after a finding or decision in favor of the plaintiff on the title, no motion under section twenty-three is seasonably made, that the procedure provided by section fifteen of chapter one hundred and eight…

Section 25. In cases where an assessment of the amounts due to the plaintiff for rents and profits and other damages, or a determination of the amount to be allowed to the defendant for improvements, or of the value of the plaintiff's estate is to be made by the land court, such …

Section 26. The defendant shall have judgment upon his counterclaim for the value of the improvements. The plaintiff shall have judgment and execution for the amount found due him for rents and profits and other damages due from the defendant as well as for seisin of the land.

Section 27. If the amount found due to the defendant for improvements exceeds the amount found due from him for rents and profits accruing within six years, he shall be chargeable with rents and profits accruing before that time, so far as necessary to balance his judgment for im…

Section 28. The plaintiff shall, except as provided in the following section, before taking out execution for seisin of the land, pay to the defendant, or for his use to the recorder of the land court, the amount, if any, by which the defendant's judgment upon his counterclaim fo…

Section 29. If the plaintiff has had judgment for seisin of the land, he may take out a writ of seisin before judgment has been rendered upon his claim for rents and profits or other damages or upon the defendant's counterclaim for improvements, but if there is pending such a cou…

Section 3. The plaintiff shall declare on his own seisin within twenty years then last past, without specifying any particular day, and shall allege a disseisin by the defendant, but need not aver a taking of the profits. He shall set forth the estate which he claims in the land …

Section 30. If the defendant has judgment for such improvements, he may have an execution therefor or he may collect the same, with all reasonable costs and expenses for such collection, out of the security furnished, or may receive it out of the money paid into court and the res…

Section 31. If the defendant counterclaims for improvements as before provided the plaintiff may, by motion, require the value of his estate in the land demanded, without the improvements, to be determined as provided for the assessment of rents, profits and improvements. Such va…

Section 32. After said determination of value the plaintiff may, at the sitting at which judgment is entered for him, enter upon the record his election to relinquish his estate in the land to the defendant at said value; and upon his motion for further time in which to make such…

Section 33. If the plaintiff elects to relinquish the land as before provided, the defendant shall thenceforth hold all the estate which the plaintiff had therein at the commencement of the action, if he pays said value thereof in three equal instalments on or before the expirati…

Section 34. Said payments shall be made to the plaintiff or for his use to the recorder of the land court; and if the defendant fails to make any such payment within the time limited therefor, the plaintiff may, within three months after default of payment, take out his writ of s…

Section 35. If the defendant or his heirs or assigns, after the land is so relinquished to him, are evicted therefrom by force of a better title than that of the original plaintiff, the person so evicted may recover in a civil action from such plaintiff, or from his executors, ad…

Section 36. If, after judgment for the plaintiff, either party dies before the writ of seisin is executed, or before the case is otherwise settled under this chapter, any money payable by the plaintiff or defendant, respectively, may be paid by him or his executor or administrato…

Section 37. The writ of seisin issued in such case shall be in the name of the original plaintiff against the original defendant, although either or both of them are dead, and when executed it shall enure to the benefit of the plaintiff or of the person entitled to the land under…

Section 38. If a plaintiff claiming an estate for life only satisfies a judgment upon the defendant's counterclaim for improvements, he or his executor or administrator shall, at the determination of his estate, be paid by the remainderman or reversioner the value of the improvem…

Section 39. If the amount due from the remainderman or reversioner is not agreed on by the parties, it may be determined in a civil action brought by the remainderman or reversioner; and the proceedings shall be the same as in a suit for the redemption of a mortgage.

Section 4. The plaintiff need not prove an actual entry under his title, but proof that he is entitled to such an estate as he claims in the land and that he has a right of entry therein shall be sufficient to prove his seisin. No such action shall be maintained unless the plaint…