General Laws of Massachusetts - Chapter 167D Deposits and Accounts - Section 11 Shade Tree and Cemetery Accounts

Section 11. A bank may receive on deposit to any amount, funds in trust for the purposes of setting out shade trees in streets and parks and improving the same, purchasing land for parks or playgrounds and improving the same, maintaining cemeteries or cemetery lots, or erecting and maintaining drinking fountains in public places, subject to the following provisions:

1. Payments. — The interest on such deposits shall be paid at least annually to such town or cemetery authorities as may be designated by the donors of said funds or by the will of the person bequeathing the same, and shall be expended by such authorities within their respective towns or cemeteries for any or all of said purposes as may be specified by such donors or such will. Such deposits and interest shall be exempt from attachment or levy on execution. No part of the principal of such deposits shall be withdrawn or expended, but nothing in this sentence shall prevent the withdrawal of the principal of or interest on deposits made by a cemetery corporation under section three, and nothing in this sentence shall prevent the withdrawal by the city or town treasurer of cemetery perpetual care funds deposited by a city or town.

2. Court Order. — A judge of probate, after notice and a hearing, may authorize an executor, administrator or trustee holding money or other personal property for any of the purposes mentioned in this section, to deposit such money, or the avails arising from such personal property, in any such bank designated by the judge, to be held by it in the manner and for such purposes and upon the trusts upon which the executor, administrator or trustee held the same; and upon the deposit of such money and its receipt and acceptance by such bank the executor, administrator or trustee shall be discharged from further care and responsibility therefor.

3. Statement Every Three Years. — The deposits held in accordance with this section shall be known as the “Shade Tree and Cemetery Accounts” and the treasurer of the bank with which they are deposited shall give a receipt therefor to the depositor, and shall send by mail or delivery, in January in each third year after the first deposit, to the mayor of a city or the chairman of the selectmen of a town, a written statement, signed by such treasurer, of the amount of deposits held for any of the purposes aforesaid in the name or for the benefit of such city or town or of any instrumentality thereof. Such statement shall be recorded in the office of the city or town clerk.

4. Transfer of Deposit. — If a bank holding such deposits surrenders its charter or ceases to do business, the supreme judicial court may order said deposits to be transferred and deposited in another such bank, upon the same trusts, and if the laws authorizing such banks are repealed, the court may order such deposits to be transferred and deposited in such banking institutions as it may find proper, to be held upon the trusts aforesaid.

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Last modified: September 11, 2015