Massachusetts · statute · Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 159 · 97 active provisions
Section 1. Every common carrier of merchandise or other property shall receive, transport and forward all property offered for such purposes by other such carriers as promptly, faithfully and impartially, at as low rates of charge, and in a manner and on terms and conditions as favorable to the carrier offering such pr…
Section 2. Every such carrier who wilfully neglects or refuses to comply with the preceding section shall forfeit not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars, to the person offering the property for transportation.
Section 3. No common carrier of passengers shall, by rule, regulation, sign or otherwise, require passengers whom it suffers to enter, or leave by, a door of its car or train, to do so at their own risk; and no such passenger shall be prevented from recovering compensation in damages for any injury by reason of any suc…
Section 4. A corporation engaged in carrying passengers or in transporting freight for hire shall not require or receive from a person who is employed or about to be employed by it a bond or other security, either with or without surety, to indemnify such corporation against loss or damage to other persons or to proper…
Section 5. Every association of persons who are not inhabitants of this commonwealth which does an express business therein shall in writing appoint a person, who is a citizen and a resident thereof, to be a general agent, upon whom all lawful processes against such persons may be served with like effect as if served o…
Section 6. Such general agent shall give bond to the state treasurer, with one or more sureties to be approved by him, in the sum of two thousand dollars, conditioned that he will accept service of all lawful process against his principal.
Section 7. No person shall act for more than thirty days as such general agent unless the two proceeding sections have been complied with; and whoever so acts without such compliance shall forfeit not more than five hundred dollars.
Section 8. Whoever, with intent to defraud or injure in his business a person licensed by any town as a carrier of goods for hire, takes from the order box of such carrier or effaces or destroys any order to or direction for such carrier to call for and receive goods to be transported by such carrier, or appropriates a…
Section 9. Sections one hundred and ninety-three, two hundred and six and two hundred and thirty-three of chapter one hundred and sixty shall apply to steamboat lines within the commonwealth and to persons who are engaged or who desire to engage in the express business thereon.
Section 10. The department of telecommunications and cable shall enforce this chapter to the extent that it relates to telecommunications. The department of public utilities shall enforce all other provisions.
Section 11. Every vote, recommendation and order of the department relative to common carriers shall be entered of record.
Section 12. The department shall, so far as may be necessary for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of law relative thereto, have general supervision and regulation of, and jurisdiction and control over, the following services, when furnished or rendered for public use within the commonwealth, except when such…
Section 12E. (a) (1) A company that provides third party verification services pursuant to section 109 of chapter 93 shall apply for registration with the department. (2) The department shall allow a company to register as a third party verification service provider only if it: (i) operates in a location physically sep…
Section 13. The department may inquire into the rates, charges, regulations, practices, equipment and services of common carriers in this commonwealth, and elsewhere, rendering any service of a kind subject to its jurisdiction.
Section 14. Whenever the department shall be of opinion, after a hearing had upon its own motion or upon complaint, that any of the rates, fares or charges of any common carrier for any services to be performed within the commonwealth, or the regulations or practices of such common carrier affecting such rates, are unj…
Section 15. Except as provided by section two hundred of chapter one hundred and sixty, no common carrier shall, directly or indirectly, issue or give any free service, free tickets, free pass or free transportation for passengers or property between points within the commonwealth; but this section shall not prohibit a…
Section 16. If the department is of opinion, after a hearing had upon its own motion or upon complaint, that the regulations, practices, equipment, appliances or service of any common carrier are unjust, unreasonable, unsafe, improper or inadequate, the department shall determine the just, reasonable, safe, adequate an…
Section 16A. The department before authorizing any railroad to discontinue or abandon any of its lines, stations or other service, may consider, in addition to other facts, the revenues of said railroad from all sources.
Section 17. All charges made, demanded or received by any common carrier for any service rendered or performed, or to be rendered or performed by it or in connection therewith in the conduct of its common carrier business, or made, demanded or received by any two or more common carriers joining in rendering or performi…
Section 18. Subject to the powers of the department to regulate and prescribe rates and charges, a common carrier may make commodity, transit or other classes of rates. The furnishing by any common carrier of any service at the rates and upon the terms and conditions provided for in any existing contract executed prior…
Section 19. Every common carrier shall file with the department and shall plainly print and keep open to public inspection schedules showing all rates, joint rates, fares, telephone rentals, tolls, classifications and charges for any service, of every kind rendered or furnished, or to be rendered or furnished, by it wi…
Section 19A. The department may approve a rate, fare, toll or charge for directory assistance service pursuant to schedules filed with the department; provided, however, that for each business or residence line and for each private branch exchange trunk line to which a customer subscribes, said customer shall be entitl…
Section 19B. As used in sections nineteen C and nineteen D, the following words shall, unless the context requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— ''Automatic telephone dialing system'', any automatic terminal equipment which is capable of storing numbers to be called or producing numbers to be called, using a…
Section 19C. Any person who is a customer of a common carrier and who wishes not to receive telephone calls from an automatic telephone dialing system may notify such common carrier which provides telephone exchange service that he does not wish to receive such calls. The department shall prescribe regulations specifyi…
Section 19D. Any automatic telephone dialing system sold in the commonwealth shall be designed to prevent the selection or dialing of any telephone numbers listed pursuant to section nineteen C. Any person using an automatic telephone dialing system shall prevent such system from selecting or dialing any telephone numb…