G. L. c. 83, § 27]

of deeds of the county or district in which such city or town is situated a statement of their action, which shall specify the ways in which such sewer, drain or sidewalk is located. All assessments made or charges imposed under this chapter upon any land which abuts upon any such way in which such sewer, drain or sidewalk is located shall constitute a lien upon such land from the time such statement is recorded.

The purpose of the foregoing section, which was enacted at the time of the consolidation of the General Laws, was to make the incidence of the lien for sewer and sidewalk assessments a matter of record in the registry of deeds, as is provided in the case of betterment assessments. Under the laws as they previously stood, the lien for a sewer assessment arose when the order for construction of the sewer was adopted, and there was no provision for recording such an order in the registry of deeds. The assessment might be made during an indefinite period after the construction of the sewer and the lien continued in force until two years after the assessment was made. The special act relating to the city of Boston required the recording of a statement in the registry of deeds of intent to construct a sewer in any specified street, before any lien could attach, and a similar provision was incorporated in the General Laws, in order to make certain the existence of the lien and to fix the time of its incidence.*

3

As the statute originally stood, it applied only to sewers and sidewalks in public ways. If a sewer was to be built in a way dedicated to public use which had not become a public way, in order to establish a lien for the assessment it was necessary to proceed under the chapter on betterments, which might lawfully be done in such a case, for the establishment of a sewer in a private way necessarily involved the taking of land by eminent domain. When sewer assessments in a city were assessed at a fixed uniform rate it was not desirable to make an exception in

2

G. L. c. 80, §2.

Thus in Hester v. Collector of Brockton, 217 Mass. 422 (1914) an assessment for the construction of a sewer was sustained which was made seventeen years after the order for construction, and long after the land assessed had been divided and sold to different parties.

St. 1903, c. 268, §1.

See Preliminary Report of Commissioners to Consolidate and Arrange the General Laws, p. 218.

[G. L. c. 83, §§ 27, 28 the case of sewers in private streets and accordingly the statute was amended in 1921 so as to extend to ways opened or dedicated to the public use which had not become public ways.

Adoption of Administrative Provisions of Betterment Law

SECTION 28. The provisions of chapter eighty relative to the apportionment, division, re-assessment, abatement and collection of assessments, and to interest, shall apply to assessments made under this chapter.

This section originated at the time of the enactment of the General Laws, and was intended to make the administrative features of sewer and sidewalk assessments uniform with the procedure provided in the chapter on betterments, and it superseded twelve sections of the earlier statutes which provided for the administration of the different forms of sewer assessments. It is to be remembered however that it applies only to assessments levied under chapter eighty-three of the General Laws, and that it has no application to sewer and sidewalk assessments levied under special acts.

CHAPTER 85

REGULATIONS RELATIVE TO WAYS AND BRIDGES Assessments for the Cost of Removing Snow from Sidewalks

SECTION 6. Any town which accepts this section or has accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws, may cause the snow and ice to be removed from its permanent sidewalks constructed of brick, stone, cement, concrete or asphalt, and may provide that the assessors may assess upon the estates abutting on said sidewalks, from which snow or ice has thus been removed, the whole or any part of the cost of such removal; and the provisions of chapter eighty relative to the abatement and collection of betterments shall apply to such assessments.

SECTION 7. Any person, or the agent of any person, owning an estate abutting on any sidewalk as aforesaid, may, on or before November first in any year, procure the exemption of such estate from the assessment aforesaid for the following year by a stipulation in writing with the selectmen that he will remove snow and ice from the sidewalk on which the estate abuts, at such time and in such manner as the selectmen or road commissioners shall direct; and if he fails to fulfil his stipulation the assessment above provided for shall be made and collected as if no such stipulation had been made.

As EARLY as 1835 it was held that a by-law of the city of Boston which required the owners or occupants of houses bordering on streets to clear the snow from the sidewalks adjoining their lands was valid, not as imposing a tax, but as a reasonable police regulation. Since 1857 the statutes have specifically authorized cities and towns to require the removal of snow from their sidewalks by the owners of abutting land."

Since 1902 the statutes have also provided for the assessment of the cost of removing snow as a special assessment under the power of taxation.

1 Goddard, Petitioner, 16 Pick. 504 (1835).

2 See G. L. c. 85, §5.

CHAPTER 111

PUBLIC HEALTH

Assessment for Drainage of Wet Lands

SECTION 132. Land which is wet, rotten or spongy, or covered with stagnant water, so as to be offensive to residents in its vicinity or injurious to health, shall be deemed a nuisance, which the board of health of the town where it lies, upon petition and hearing, may abate in the manner provided in the seven following sections; but if the expense of abatement will exceed two thousand dollars, such abatement shall not be made without a previous appropriation therefor.

SECTION 133. Whoever is injured by such nuisance may, by petition describing the premises upon which it is alleged to exist and stating the nature of the nuisance complained of, apply to the board for its abatement; whereupon such board shall view the premises and examine into the nature and cause of such nuisance.

SECTION 134. Upon such examination, if the board is of opinion that the petition should be granted, it shall appoint a time and place for a hearing, first giving reasonable notice thereof to the petitioners, to the persons whose lands it may be necessary to enter upon to abate the nuisance, and to any other persons who may be damaged or benefited by the proceedings, and to the mayor or the chairman of the selectmen, unless the selectmen constitute the board of health, that they may be heard upon the necessity and mode of abating such nuisance, the question of damages, and of the assessment and apportionment of the expenses of the abatement.

SECTION 135. Such notice shall be in writing, and may be served, by any person authorized to serve civil process, by personal service upon the mayor or chairman of the selectmen, the petitioners, the owner or occupant of any land upon which it may be necessary to enter or which may be benefited by the abatement, or the authorized agent of such owner or occupant, or by leaving an attested copy of such notice at the last and usual place of abode of such persons; but if the land is unoccupied and the owner or agent is unknown or out

G. L. c. 111, §§ 135-138]

of the commonwealth, the notice to such owner may be served by posting an attested copy thereof upon the premises, or by advertising in one or more newspapers in such manner and for such length of time as the board may order.

SECTION 136. At the time and place appointed therefor, the board shall hear the parties, and thereafter may cause such nuisance to be abated by entering upon any land and by making such excavations, embankments and drains therein and under and across any ways as may be necessary; and shall also determine in what manner and at whose expense the improvements shall be kept in repair, shall estimate and award the damage sustained by and the benefit accruing to any person by reason of such improvements, and what proportion of the expense of making and keeping the same in repair shall be borne by the town and by the persons benefited thereby. The board shall forthwith give notice of its decision, in the manner required in the preceding section, to the parties to whom notice is required to be given by section one hundred and thirty-four and to the assessors of said town. The expense of making and keeping such improvements in repair shall be assessed by the assessors upon the persons benefited thereby, as ascertained by said decision, shall be included in their taxes, shall be a lien upon the land benefited thereby, and shall be collected in the same manner as other taxes upon land. Apportionment of assessments under this section may be made and the parts thereof be collected as provided in chapter eighty.

SECTION 137. A person entitled to notice under section one hundred and thirty-four, who is aggrieved by the decision of said board or of the commissioners appointed under section one hundred and forty that the land described in the petition is a nuisance, may appeal therefrom to the superior court, if, within twenty-four hours after notice of such decision, he gives written notice to said board of his intention so to do, and within seven days thereafter files a petition in the superior court stating his grievance and the action of said board thereon, and enters into such recognizance as said court shall order. Said court may hear and determine such appeal, pending which all proceedings by the board of health relative to such nuisance shall be stayed.

SECTION 138. Whoever is aggrieved by such decision in the award of damages or in the determination of benefits accrued or in the apportionment of the expense may, within three months after notice. thereof, petition the superior court under chapter seventy-nine or