Massachusetts Statutes

Section 29A. As an alternative to initiating criminal proceedings for violations of the following weights and measures laws: section 115A of chapter 6; sections 92B, 96, 98, 174A, 176, 177, sections 181 to 183, inclusive, section 184E, sections 295A to 295K, inclusive, sections 2…

Section 3. The following weighing and measuring devices now in the custody of the deputy director shall be the sole authorized standards, except as provided in sections four, nine and ten of this chapter, and in section one of chapter ninety-nine, and with the standards supplied …

Section 31. The deputy director and town and district sealers shall keep seals for their use. The seal of the deputy director shall bear the letters ''C.M.'' and those of the sealers shall be of a type approved by the deputy director. Any sealer neglecting to keep such a seal sha…

Section 32. Upon the request of a sealer, and at such other times as the deputy director deems necessary, said deputy director shall cause the standards of apothecaries' weights and apothecaries' liquid measures and the other standard weights, measures and balances of each town t…

Section 33. The deputy director or his inspectors under his direction, shall at least once in each year test all weighing and measuring devices used in checking the receipt or disbursements of supplies in each state institution or department, and shall mark them in accordance wit…

Section 33A. The deputy director or his inspectors, under his direction, shall at least once in each year test all weighing and measuring devices which are used for the purpose of buying or selling goods, wares or merchandise, for public weighing or for hire or reward, in towns o…

Section 34. Subject to chapter thirty-one, the mayor of each city and the selectmen of each town of over 20,000 inhabitants shall appoint a sealer, and may appoint one or more deputies to act under the direction of the sealer. The sealer and deputies shall enforce the law pertain…

Section 35. (a) The mayor of each city and the selectmen of each town of more than 5,000 and less than 20,000 inhabitants shall establish a comprehensive weights measures enforcement system, subject to annual review by the director, by adopting one of the following three methods:…

Section 36. Two or more municipalities may combine the whole or any part of their respective territories as may be agreed upon by the boards or officers having the appointing power in such municipalities into a district with one district sealer and one set of standards. He shall …

Section 36A. For a city or town where the mayor or board of selectmen have appointed a sealer pursuant to paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of section 35, or for a city or town where the mayor or board of selectmen have appointed a sealer pursuant to section 34, or for a city or to…

Section 37. Each municipality shall annually, between January 1 and January 31, submit to the director a written report that describes the components of the municipality's weights and measures program, including, but not limited to, an inventory of all weighing and measuring devi…

Section 38. Sealers shall, upon request to the deputy director, be provided, at the expense of their towns, with duplicate sets of apothecaries' weights and apothecaries' liquid measures described in section three, to be used as standards in the towns where they are kept.

Section 39. Except as otherwise provided in section thirty-six each sealer shall receive from his town treasurer a set of standards and a seal, and shall give a receipt therefor, stating their condition when received; and shall be accountable to such town for the preservation the…

Section 4. The state standards shall also include all weighing and measuring devices received from the United States under the resolution of congress approved June fourteenth, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, and all other weighing and measuring devices received from the United S…

Section 40. A sealer or deputy visiting the place of business of a person to test and seal weighing or measuring devices may use therefor suitable weights, measures and balances; and each town and district shall furnish its sealer with one or more duplicate sets of weights, measu…

Section 41. Sealers shall annually give public notice, by advertisement or by posting notices in one or more public places in their towns or districts, to all inhabitants, or persons having usual places of business therein, using weighing or measuring devices for the purpose of b…

Section 42. After giving said notice, said sealers shall go to the houses, stores, shops, vehicles, or other commercial premises, during normal business hours, of a person not complying therewith, and shall test and adjust, seal or condemn in accordance with the results of their …

Section 43. A sealer or deputy shall test all weighing or measuring devices having a device for indicating or registering the price as well as the weight or measure of a commodity offered for sale as to the correctness of both weights or measures and values indicated by them.

Section 44. Devices used for determining the measurement of leather bought, sold or offered for sale shall be tested as to the correctness of measures indicated by them by a sealer of the town where they are used, and the deputy director may make such rules and regulations as he …

Section 45. All devices used upon vehicles for determining the cost of transportation shall be tested as to the correctness of measures and values indicated by them, and the deputy director may make rules and regulations to insure accuracy in the use thereof. Any owner or operato…

Section 46. The deputy director may, if he deems it desirable, and shall, upon request, test any weights, measures, instruments or mechanical devices of any kind used or intended to be used in standardizing the production of any manufactured article by controlling processes or by…

Section 46A. Each bulk milk tank shall upon installation be calibrated and sealed by the director or his authorized representative. Reinstallation of a used bulk milk tank shall be considered as an original installation, provided it is for a new owner at other than the original p…

Section 47. Apothecaries and other persons dealing in or dispensing drugs, medicines or merchandise sold, dispensed or given away by apothecaries' weights or by apothecaries' liquid measure, shall, at least annually, cause the weights and measures so used to be tested and sealed …

Section 48. Whoever sells or dispenses drugs, medicines or merchandise requiring the use of apothecaries' weights or apothecaries' liquid measures or in the sale of which they are commonly used, and does not have such weights and measures tested under this chapter shall be punish…

Section 49. Sealers shall go once a year, and oftener if necessary, to each hay and coal scale and other weighing or measuring device in their towns not easily or conveniently removed, and shall test, adjust and seal or condemn them.

Section 5. Towns shall keep the following standard weights, measures and balances: A set of avoirdupois weights consisting of fifty, twenty-five, twenty, ten, five, four, two and one pounds, and eight, four, two, one, one half, one quarter, one eighth and one sixteenth ounces; a …

Section 50. Whoever uses any weighing or measuring devices may have them tested by the sealer at any time upon request and the sealer shall seal or condemn the same in accordance with the results of his tests.

Section 51. When notified by a dealer in milk or cream using glass bottles or jars for the distribution thereof that he has in his possession not less than six gross of such bottles or jars not sealed, sealers shall forthwith seal them as provided in section fifteen, at a suitabl…

Section 52. If a person informs a sealer that he has reasonable cause to believe, or if such sealer has reasonable cause to believe, that any weighing or measuring device used in the sale of a commodity in his town is incorrect, said sealer shall go where it is and shall test and…

Section 53. If a sealer cannot seal any weighing or measuring device in the usual manner, he may mark it with a stencil or by other suitable means, showing that it has been inspected; and if a weighing or measuring device is so small as to render it impracticable to seal it in th…

Section 54. A sealer or deputy may seize without a warrant weighing or measuring devices necessary to be used as evidence in cases of violation of the laws relative to the sealing thereof; and they shall be returned to the owners or forfeited, as the court directs.

Section 55. A sealer or deputy may seize weighing or measuring devices not conforming to legal standards or not sealed as required by law; and a person having in his possession such weighing or measuring devices, with intent to use them in violation of law, shall be punished by a…

Section 56. Except as otherwise established in a town by town meeting action and in a city by city council action, by adoptions of the appropriate by-laws and ordinances to set such fees, sealers shall receive and inspectors may demand the following fees for sealing and inspectin…

Section 56A. Whoever places a scale or weighing device when used in weighing food sold at retail by weight in the presence of the purchaser so that the weight indicator may not be read and the weighing operations be observed by the purchaser shall be punished by a fine of $50, or…

Section 56B. Whoever being engaged in the business of selling prepackaged meat, poultry or edible fish at retail refuses or neglects to provide each outlet where said products are sold with a computing scale or refuses to reweigh a prepackaged item of meat, poultry or edible fish…

Section 56C. Whoever maintains a cash register or other mechanical device at a counter for totalling the monetary value of customer purchases at retail which is so hidden or in such a position that the total cannot be observed by the customer shall be punished by a fine of fifty …

Section 56D. (a) The director or the director's inspectors and sealers and inspectors of weights and measures and their deputies shall, in every 24 month period, examine and test the operation of all automated retail checkout systems in all establishments with 3 or more cash regi…

Section 57. The director of the office of consumer affairs shall prepare and submit to the governor, the general court and the senate and house committees on post audit and oversight an annual report of the acts of the division of standards. Said report shall include a descriptio…

Section 59. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following words shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise:— ''Charger'', a device having at least 1 charging port and connector for charging electric vehicles; provided, however, that ''ch…

Section 6. In every town the sealer shall, at the expense of the town, provide therein accessible places for the safe and suitable keeping and preservation of the standards furnished by the commonwealth, which shall be used only as standards. The sealer shall have the care and ov…

Section 7. Every such sealer who neglects to provide a suitable place for keeping such standards, or to keep them in good order and repair, or who suffers any of them through his neglect to be lost, damaged or destroyed, shall forfeit five hundred dollars.

Section 8. Vibrating steelyards may be used if each beam and the poises thereof are annually tried, proved and sealed by a sealer or deputy.

Section 9. A clinical standard thermometer supplied by the commonwealth and certified by the national bureau of standards for use by the commonwealth, shall be the state clinical standard thermometer. Nothing in the five following sections shall be construed as adopting or author…

Section 1. The weights and measures of the metric system may be employed and used in the commonwealth, and no contract or dealing shall be deemed invalid and no pleading in any court shall be open to objection because the weights or measures are stated therein in terms of the met…

Section 2. The tables of weights and measures as set forth in the National Bureau of Standards Miscellaneous Publication, issued December 20, 1960, and titled ''Units of Weight and Measure, Definitions and Tables of Equivalents'', shall be recognized in the construction of contra…

Section 3. The duties of the deputy director of standards and the duties and responsibilities of the sealer of weights and measures of each town, with respect to the keeping, care, verification and use of the standard weights and measures of the metric system, shall be the same a…