Massachusetts · statute · Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 246 · 86 active provisions
Section 1. Trustee process may be used in accordance with the applicable rules of court in connection with the commencement of all personal actions except actions only for specific recovery of goods and chattels, for malicious prosecution, for slander and libel, or for assault and battery; and any person may be summone…
Section 2. If, in an action in the supreme judicial or superior court in which trustee process is used, all the persons named in the summons as trustees dwell or have usual places of business in one county, the action shall be brought in that county; otherwise it may be brought in any county where any one of the truste…
Section 3. If, in an action in the supreme judicial or superior court in which trustee process is used in connection with the commencement thereof, the court finds that the trustee was made a party in order to give the court jurisdiction of the action in the county where the trustee dwells or has a usual place of busin…
Section 4. No person shall be held to answer as a trustee in an action in a district court, except as provided in section fifty-four of chapter two hundred and eighteen, in any county other than that where he dwells or has a usual place of business; and if a person summoned as trustee in such court is out of the county…
Section 4A. Whenever the venue of an action in a district court is based upon the residence or usual place of business of an alleged trustee, which action could not otherwise be properly brought in that district, the court may on motion of any party thereto transfer such action for trial and final disposition to any ot…
Section 4B. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, in an action to enforce a support order pursuant to section thirty-six A of chapter two hundred and eight, the action shall be brought in the court which issued the order for alimony, maintenance or child support.
Section 5. The trustee summons shall be served in accordance with the applicable rule of court.
Section 6. When a foreign corporation having a usual place of business in the commonwealth is summoned as a trustee in an action against one of its employees, service of the summons may be made as provided in section thirty-eight or thirty-nine of chapter two hundred and twenty-three, or upon any paymaster or other off…
Section 7. If co-partners are summoned as trustees and the partnership is properly described in the trustee summons, service of the trustee summons upon one partner shall be sufficient.
Section 8. The plaintiff may at any time insert the names of other trustees in the summons, and cause the summons to be served upon them; and after service upon a trustee, a plaintiff may cause the summons to be again served upon the same trustee in the same manner and with the same effect as if he had not been previou…
Section 9. The plaintiff may proceed in the action against the defendant if the defendant has been served with process although all the trustees have been discharged.
Section 10. A person summoned as trustee shall file his answer within twenty days after service of the trustee summons upon him, unless the court otherwise directs. The answer shall disclose plainly, fully and particularly what goods, effects or credits, if any, of the defendant were in the hands or possession of the t…
Section 11. Such answer shall be signed and sworn to by the trustee, or, in lieu of being sworn to, shall contain his written declaration, subject to the penalty prescribed by section one A of chapter two hundred and sixty-eight, that the answer is made under the penalties of perjury.
Section 12. The plaintiff may from time to time examine the alleged trustee upon written interrogatories filed in the clerk's office. The answers thereto shall be signed, sworn to and filed in said office within seven days after notice to the trustee or his attorney of the filing of the interrogatories, unless the cour…
Section 13. If the answer of the alleged trustee shows that at the time of service of the trustee summons upon him he had not in his hands or possession any goods, effects or credits of the defendant, and the plaintiff declines to examine him, or if upon examination his answer appears to be true, he shall be discharged…
Section 14. A person summoned as trustee who admits that he has in his hands any goods, effects or credits of the defendant, or who wishes to submit the question to the court whether he is chargeable upon the facts, may make a written statement, on oath, of such facts as are material. The plaintiff may then examine him…
Section 15. A corporation summoned as trustee may appear and answer by its cashier, treasurer, clerk or such other officer or employee as it shall appoint or as the court shall require to attend for that purpose, and his answer and examination, on oath, shall be received as the answer and examination of the corporation…
Section 16. The answer and statements of a trustee, on oath, shall be considered as true in determining how far he is chargeable; but either party may allege and prove any facts material in determining such question and not stated or denied by the trustee.
Section 17. A question of fact arising upon such additional allegations may be tried and determined by the court, or it may be submitted to a jury in such manner as the court orders.
Section 18. A person who, being duly summoned as a trustee, neglects to appear and answer as hereinbefore provided shall be defaulted and adjudged a trustee.
Section 19. If a person summoned as trustee, his executor or administrator, or if an officer, agent or other person who appears and answers for a corporation so summoned, knowingly and wilfully swears falsely in his answer or upon his examination, he shall be liable to the plaintiff in the trustee process, or to his ex…
Section 20. The goods, effects or credits of the defendant intrusted to, or deposited in the hands or possession of, a person summoned as his trustee shall, except as hereinafter provided, be attached and held to respond to the final judgment, as if they had been attached upon an original writ of attachment; provided,…
Section 20A. No person shall send out of this commonwealth by assignment, transfer, or in any other manner, with or without consideration, or institute in a foreign court any action upon a claim against a resident debtor of this commonwealth, with the intent of depriving such resident debtor of the benefit of the exemp…
Section 22. After a dividend on the estate of an insolvent debtor has been declared, it may, unless it is upon a claim for wages which would have been exempt from attachment by trustee process in the hands of the insolvent debtor, be so attached in the hands of the assignee.
Section 23. Funds, credits or dividends due from or in the hands of receivers appointed by a court may be so attached after an order has been made for their distribution.