Massachusetts § 3 - Recordation of taking order; procedure to acquire possession

§ 3. Recordation of taking order; procedure to acquire possession

Section 3. The board of officers by whom an order of taking has been adopted under section one shall within thirty days thereafter cause a copy thereof, signed by them or certified by their secretary or clerk, or, in case of a taking by or on behalf of a city by a board of officers having no secretary or clerk, certified by the city clerk, to be recorded in the registry of deeds of every county or district in which the property taken or any of it lies. The copy of an order of taking made under chapter one hundred and fifty-nine in connection with proceedings thereunder to abolish grade crossings by the department of highways, or by the department of telecommunications and energy, may be filed and recorded without the payment of any fee therefor. Upon the recording of an order of taking under this section, title to the fee of the property taken or to such other interest therein as has been designated in such order shall vest in the body politic or corporate on behalf of which the taking was made; and the right to damages for such taking shall thereupon vest in the persons entitled thereto unless otherwise provided by law.

If the person in possession of property which has been taken in fee, or in which an easement has been taken, by eminent domain under this chapter refuses to permit the body politic or corporate by which the taking was made to enter thereon and take possession thereof or to exercise its rights under the taking after thirty days' notice in writing sent to him by registered mail or posted upon the property so taken or in which an easement has been so taken, the board of officers having the direction and control of the public improvement in connection with which the taking was made may issue its warrant to the sheriff of the county in which the property is situated or to his deputy directing him to make entry on the property so taken and to take possession thereof or of the easement therein which has been taken, on behalf of said body politic or corporate, and such sheriff or his deputy shall forthwith execute said warrant using such force as he may deem necessary for the purpose.