General Laws of Massachusetts - Chapter 260 Limitation of Actions
- Massachusetts General Laws - Actions requiring commencement within twenty years - Chapter 260, Section 1
The following actions shall be commenced only within twenty years next after the cause of action accrues: First, Actions upon contracts under seal. Second, Actions...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Contract actions; actions upon judgments or decrees of courts of record - Chapter 260, Section 2
Actions of contract, other than those to recover for personal injuries, founded upon contracts or liabilities, express or implied, except actions limited by section one...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Tort, contract to recover for personal injuries, and replevin actions - Chapter 260, Section 2A
Except as otherwise provided, actions of tort, actions of contract to recover for personal injuries, and actions of replevin, shall be commenced only within three...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Tort actions arising from improvements to real property - Chapter 260, Section 2B
Action of tort for damages arising out of any deficiency or neglect in the design, planning, construction or general administration of an improvement to real...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Actions for damages, etc. for physical alteration or destruction of fine art - Chapter 260, Section 2C
Actions commenced under the provisions of section eighty-five S of chapter two hundred and thirty-one shall be commenced only within two years next after the...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Actions to recover costs of asbestos related corrective actions - Chapter 260, Section 2D
Any action brought by or on behalf of any county, city, town, regional school district, housing authority or the commonwealth or any other political subdivision...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Actions against the Dalkon Shield Claimants Trust - Chapter 260, Section 2E
Notwithstanding the provisions of section two A, every cause of action for personal injury or death caused by the effects of the Dalkon Shield intrauterine...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Misconduct or negligence of deputies; actions against sheriffs - Chapter 260, Section 3
Actions against sheriffs for the misconduct or negligence of their deputies shall be commenced only within four years next after the cause of action accrues.
- Massachusetts General Laws - Claims against commonwealth - Chapter 260, Section 3A
[ Text of section effective until June 26, 2014. For text effective June 26, 2014, see below.] Petitions founded upon claims against the commonwealth prosecuted...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Certain tort or contract actions for malpractice, error or mistake - Chapter 260, Section 4
Actions of contract or tort for malpractice, error or mistake against attorneys, certified public accountants and public accountants, actions for assault and battery, false imprisonment,...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Back wages, actions to recover - Chapter 260, Section 4A
Actions to recover back wages based upon any judicial interpretation of a state or federal statute differing from or overruling a previous interpretation of the...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Hit and run accidents - Chapter 260, Section 4B
Actions of tort for bodily injuries or for death or for damages to property against the owner or operator of a motor vehicle, the operator...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Sexual abuse of minors - Chapter 260, Section 4C
[ First paragraph effective until June 26, 2014. For text effective June 26, 2014, see below.] Actions for assault and battery alleging the defendant sexually...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Negligent supervision or conduct causing or contributing to the sexual abuse of minor by another person - Chapter 260, Section 4C1/2
[ Text of section added by 2014, 145, Sec. 7 effective June 26, 2014 applicable as provided by 2014, 145, Sec. 8.] An action of...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Civil remedies for victims of trafficking of persons for sexual servitude; damages; time for actions; representation of victim’s rights by others - Chapter 260, Section 4D
(a) A victim of trafficking of persons for sexual servitude under section 50 of chapter 265 or of trafficking of persons for forced services under...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Penalties and forfeitures - Chapter 260, Section 5
Actions for penalties or forfeitures under penal statutes, if brought by a person to whom the penalty or forfeiture is given in whole or in...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Consumer protection actions - Chapter 260, Section 5A
Actions arising on account of violations of any law intended for the protection of consumers, including but not limited to the following: chapter seventy-five C;...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Civil rights actions - Chapter 260, Section 5B
Actions arising on account of violations of any law intended for the protection of civil rights, including but not limited to actions alleging employment, housing...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Mutual and open account current - Chapter 260, Section 6
In an action of contract brought to recover the balance due upon a mutual and open account current, the cause of action shall be held...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Minors and incapacitated persons - Chapter 260, Section 7
If the person entitled thereto is a minor, or is incapacitated by reason of mental illness when a right to bring an action first accrues,...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Citizens of enemy country; suspension of limitation - Chapter 260, Section 8
If a person is disabled from commencing an action because he is a subject or citizen of a country which is at war with the...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Nonresident defendant; suspension of limitation - Chapter 260, Section 9
If, when a cause of action hereinbefore mentioned accrues against a person, he resides out of the commonwealth, the action may be commenced within the...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Death of party; effect - Chapter 260, Section 10
If a person entitled to bring or liable to any action before mentioned dies before the expiration of the time hereinbefore limited, or within thirty...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Contracts or acts of fiduciaries - Chapter 260, Section 11
An action founded on any contract made or act done, if made or done by any person acting as the executor, administrator or other legal...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Fraudulent concealment; commencement of limitations - Chapter 260, Section 12
If a person liable to a personal action fraudulently conceals the cause of such action from the knowledge of the person entitled to bring it,...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Acknowledgment or new promise; effect - Chapter 260, Section 13
No acknowledgment or promise shall be evidence of a new or continuing contract whereby to take an action of contract out of the operation of...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Part payment; effect - Chapter 260, Section 14
The preceding section shall not alter or impair the effect of a payment of principal or interest made by any person; but no endorsement or...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Acknowledgment or new promise by joint contractor; effect - Chapter 260, Section 15
A joint contractor or his executor or administrator shall not lose the benefit of this chapter so as to be chargeable by reason only of...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Acknowledgment or new promise by joint contractor; judgment - Chapter 260, Section 16
If, in actions against two or more joint contractors or against the executor or administrator of a joint contractor, it appears that the plaintiff is...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Action not to be dismissed for failure to join barred party defendant - Chapter 260, Section 17
A civil action shall not be dismissed for failure to join a party defendant if it is established by affidavit or otherwise that the action...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Actions by state; laws applicable - Chapter 260, Section 18
The limitations of the preceding sections of this chapter, and of section thirty-two so far as applicable to personal actions, shall apply to actions brought...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Special limitations - Chapter 260, Section 19
If a special provision is otherwise made relative to the limitation of any action, any provision of this chapter inconsistent therewith shall not apply.
- Massachusetts General Laws - Currency; euro as commercially reasonable substitute and substantial equivalent - Chapter 260, Section 19A
(a) As used in this section the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings: “Euro”, the currency of participating...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Presumption of satisfaction of judgment - Chapter 260, Section 20
A judgment or decree of a court of record of the United States or of any state thereof shall be presumed to be paid and...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Recovery of land - Chapter 260, Section 21
An action for the recovery of land shall be commenced, or an entry made thereon, only within twenty years after the right of action or...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Accrual of right or title to land; limitation - Chapter 260, Section 22
If such right or title first accrued to an ancestor or predecessor of the person who brings the action or makes the entry, or to...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1979, 402, Sec. 3 - Chapter 260, Section 23 to 27
Repealed, 1979, 402, Sec.
- Massachusetts General Laws - Possession of land; requisites - Chapter 260, Section 28
No person shall be held to have been in possession of land within the meaning of this chapter merely by reason of having made an...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Estates tail; barring remainders and reversions - Chapter 260, Section 29
If the right of entry or of action of a tenant in tail, or of a person entitled to a remainder in tail, is barred...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Estates tail; death of tenant; effect - Chapter 260, Section 30
If a person entitled to recover land as a tenant in tail or as a remainderman dies before the expiration of the period hereinbefore limited...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Actions by commonwealth - Chapter 260, Section 31
No action for the recovery of land shall be commenced by or in behalf of the commonwealth, except within twenty years after its right or...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Right of entry for condition broken or possibility of reverter; procedure - Chapter 260, Section 31A
No proceeding based upon any right of entry for condition broken or possibility of reverter, to which a fee simple or fee simple determinable in...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Dismissal of action or reversal or vacation of judgment; commencement of new action - Chapter 260, Section 32
If an action duly commenced within the time limited in this chapter is dismissed for insufficient service of process by reason of an unavoidable accident...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Obsolete mortgages - Chapter 260, Section 33
A power of sale in any mortgage of real estate shall not be exercised and an entry shall not be made nor possession taken nor...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Extension of mortgage; acknowledgment that mortgage not satisfied, etc. - Chapter 260, Section 34
No extension of the mortgage, and no acknowledgment that the mortgage is not satisfied, whether contained in a conveyance or in a separate instrument, shall...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Mortgage defined; commencement of proceedings, prerequisites; application of Secs. 33 to 35 - Chapter 260, Section 35
For the purposes of this section and sections 33 and 34, the term “mortgage” includes any deed of trust or other conveyance made for the...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Application; computation - Chapter 260, Section 36
The provisions of law relative to limitations of actions shall apply to a counterclaim by the defendant. The time of such limitation shall be computed...
Last modified: September 11, 2015