reglab/housing_qa huggingface dataset:
MA Gen L ch 155 § 1 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 1 - Application of Chapter; Secretary Defined

Section 1. This chapter, unless expressly limited in its application, shall apply to all corporations created by or organized under the laws of the commonwealth, except incorporated domestic insurance companies, and except corporations subject to chapter 156A or corporations subject to chapter 156B or chapter 156D or chapter 164 or sections 1 through 11D of chapter 165 or chapter 180 except that section 2B of this chapter shall apply to all corporations subject to any of said chapters and except insofar as such provisions are inconsistent with other provisions of law relative to particular corporations or classes of corporations, and the provisions shall apply to all corporations created by or organized under laws other than those of the commonwealth so far as they are made applicable to them by reference in this or any other chapter. In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, ''secretary'' or ''state secretary'' means the secretary of the commonwealth.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 2 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 2 - Examination of Certificates and Reports by State Secretary; Records; Reports

Section 2. The secretary shall examine the certificates and reports relative to corporations submitted to him under the provisions of law, and make suitable endorsements upon such as conform to the requirements of law. He shall keep a record of the names of corporations which submit certificates to his inspection, of the date of inspection and of his certificates when given, and of the results in brief of his inspection. He shall report to the attorney general instances of neglect or omission on the part of corporations to comply with the provisions of law for the enforcement of the penalties therefor. The secretary shall on each business day furnish to the commissioner of revenue a list of all applications for incorporation, changes in corporate structure or powers, and proposals for the merger, dissolution, or revival of corporations filed on the next preceding business day, and shall also furnish to said commissioner, without cost, copies of such other documents relative to corporations as said commissioner may request.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 2b (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 2b - Clinics, Hospitals, Rest Homes, etc., Approval of Articles of Organization and Amendments

Section 2B. Upon approving articles of organization in connection with the proposed incorporation of a clinic, hospital, convalescent or nursing home, infirmary, rest home, or like entity requiring a license from the department of public health, or upon approving an amendment to the articles of organization of an existing corporation to give it the power to operate such an entity, the state secretary shall transmit a copy of such articles of organization or articles of amendment to the department of public health.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 3 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 3 - Acts of Incorporation and Corporate Organizations Subject to Legislative Action

Section 3. Every act of incorporation passed since March eleventh, eighteen hundred and thirty-one, shall be subject to amendment, alteration or repeal by the general court. All corporations organized under general laws shall be subject to such laws as may be hereafter passed affecting or altering their corporate rights or duties or dissolving them. Corporations shall, notwithstanding such repeal or dissolution, be subject to sections fifty-one and fifty-two. Such laws of amendment, alteration or repeal or such dissolution shall not take away or impair any remedy which may exist by law consistently with said sections against the corporation, its members or officers, for a liability previously incurred.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 3a (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 3a - Public Service Corporations; Deposit of Funds

Section 3A. After December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and twenty-four, all deposits of funds of public service corporations, except common carriers under the supervision of the interstate commerce commission, shall be made by the officers of the corporations in national banks, duly chartered trust companies, savings banks, co-operative banks or federal savings and loan associations; but the foregoing provision shall not apply to any deposit for a period of not more than sixty days made for the purpose of meeting obligations maturing within said period or to any deposit for a similar period of time resulting from the sale of obligations or securities.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 4 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 4 - Public Service Corporations; Misleading Use of Names or Titles

Section 4. No person owning, holding or controlling shares of stock of any public service corporation shall hereafter use any name or title or other words that, in the opinion of the department of public utilities or the department of telecommunications and cable, might lead the public to believe that such person is a public service corporation or that its business is that of a public service corporation.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 5 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 5 - Violations of Sec. 4; Investigation; Penalties; Injunction

Section 5. The department of public utilities or the department of telecommunications and cable may investigate and determine whether any person is violating the preceding section; and any person violating any provision thereof shall forfeit to the commonwealth one hundred dollars a day for every day or part thereof during which such violation continues after the determination aforesaid. Any such violation shall forthwith be reported by the department to the attorney general, after said determination and notice thereof to such person. The said forfeiture may be recovered by an information or other appropriate proceeding brought in the supreme judicial or superior court in the name of the attorney general. Upon such information or other proceeding the court may issue an injunction restraining such person from further prosecution of his business within the commonwealth during the pendency of such proceeding or for all time, and may make such other order or decree as equity and justice may require.  This and the preceding section shall not apply to the continued use by any person of any name or title adopted prior to April seventeenth, nineteen hundred and thirteen.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 5a (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 5a - Allowances for Depreciation Ordered Set Aside by Department of Utilities or Department of Telecommunications and Cable

Section 5A. If, when the department of public utilities or the department of telecommunications and cable, as required by law, approves an issue of stock, bonds, coupon notes or other evidences of indebtedness of a company under its supervision, or passes upon the price, rates, charges or service of such company, it determines that the provision made by such company for the depreciation of its property has been inadequate, the department shall order such company to set aside out of earnings such allowances for depreciation and for such period or periods as the department may from time to time prescribe. All moneys required by such order to be so set aside shall be kept as a separate fund and shall not, without the further order of the department, be used for any other purpose than for renewals other than ordinary repairs, or for extensions, reconstruction and enlargements of and additions to plant, and the department shall prescribe in its order such requirements relative to the creation and maintenance of such fund and its devotion to such aforesaid authorized uses as it may deem advisable. All orders and decisions of the department under the provisions of this section shall be enforced as provided in section sixteen of chapter one hundred and sixty-four.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 6 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 6 - General Powers

Section 6. A corporation may, in its corporate name, sue and be sued, appear, prosecute and defend to final judgment or decree and execution; have a corporate seal, which it may alter at pleasure; elect in such manner as it may determine all necessary officers, fix their compensation and define their duties and obligations; and make by-laws and regulations consistent with law for its own government, the due and orderly conduct of its affairs and the management of its property. The clerk, or recording officer with the powers of clerk, shall be a resident of the commonwealth and shall be sworn.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 7 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 7 - Content of By-Laws

Section 7. Every corporation, except those governed by chapter one hundred and fifty-six, may by its by-laws, except as otherwise expressly provided, determine the manner of calling and conducting its meetings; the number of members which shall constitute a quorum; the number of shares which shall entitle the members to one or more votes; the mode of voting by proxy; the mode of selling shares for the payment of assessments; and the tenure of office of the several officers; and may annex suitable penalties to such by-laws, not exceeding twenty dollars for one offence; but no by-law inconsistent with law shall be made by a corporation.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 8 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 8 - Conveyance of Land

Section 8. A corporation may convey land to which it has a legal title. Any recordable instrument purporting to affect an interest in real estate, executed in the name of a corporation by the president or a vice president and the treasurer or an assistant treasurer, who may be one and the same person, shall be binding on the corporation in favor of a purchaser or other person relying in good faith on such instrument notwithstanding inconsistent provisions of the articles of organization, certificate of incorporation, charter, special act of incorporation, constitution, by-laws, resolutions or votes of the corporation. This section shall apply to foreign corporations, as defined in subsection (a) of section 1.40 of subdivision D of Part 1 of chapter 156D, as well as to corporations included within section 1.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 9a (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 9a - Reservation of Corporate Name

Section 9A. Any person intending to organize a corporation under the General Laws, or any corporation organized under the General Laws intending to change its name, or any foreign corporation, as defined in subsection (a) of section 1.40 of subdivision D of Part 1 of chapter 156D, intending to make application for a certificate of authority to transact business in the commonwealth, or any foreign corporation, as so defined, authorized to transact business in the commonwealth and intending to change its name, or any person intending to organize and incorporate a foreign corporation, as so defined, and intending to have the corporation make application for a certificate of authority to transact business in the commonwealth may reserve the exclusive right to the use of a corporate name.  The reservation shall be made by filing with the secretary of the commonwealth an application to reserve a specific corporate name, signed by the applicant, accompanied by a fee to be determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section three B of chapter seven. If the name is available for corporate use, in compliance with the provisions of sections nine and ten, the secretary of the commonwealth shall reserve the name for the exclusive use of the applicant for a period of thirty days, and shall so notify the applicant in writing.  The secretary of the commonwealth may extend the reservation for an additional thirty days upon written request of the applicant accompanied by a fee to be determined also under the aforementioned chapter seven provision.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 10 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 10 - Change of Name

Section 10. A corporation, except one subject to chapter one hundred and fifty-six or chapters one hundred and sixty to one hundred and sixty-three, inclusive, may at a meeting duly called for the purpose, by vote of two thirds of each class of stock outstanding and entitled to vote, or, in case such corporation has no capital stock, by vote of two thirds of the persons legally qualified to vote in meetings of the corporation, or, if such corporation without capital stock is a mutual insurance corporation, by two thirds of the votes of its policyholders cast at such a meeting, or by a larger vote if its agreement of association or by-laws shall so require, change its name; provided, that no corporation subject to section twenty-six of chapter one hundred and eighty shall change its name until after approval of such change by the secretary. Articles of amendment signed and sworn to by the president, treasurer and a majority of the directors or other officers having the powers of directors, shall, within thirty days after such meeting, be prepared, setting forth such amendment and the due adoption thereof. Such articles shall be submitted to the secretary who shall examine them, and if he finds that they conform to the requirements of law, he shall, subject to section thirty of chapter sixty-nine if applicable to such articles, so certify and endorse his approval thereon. Thereupon the secretary shall direct the officers of the corporation to publish in such form as he may see fit, in a newspaper published in the county where the corporation has its principal office or place of business, notice of such change of name. When the secretary is satisfied that such notice has been published as required by him, he shall, upon payment of a fee to be determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section three B of chapter seven by a corporation subject to the provisions of either chapter one hundred and sixty-four or chapter one hundred and seventy-five and by all other corporations subject to the provisions of this section, grant a certificate of the name which the corporation shall bear, which name shall thereafter be its legal name, and he shall cause the articles of amendment to be filed in his office. In the case of corporations subject to chapter one hundred and seventy-five or one hundred and seventy-six, the approval of the commissioner of insurance shall be required before the state secretary approves the articles of amendment. No articles of amendment changing the name of any corporation shall take effect until they have been filed in the office of the secretary as aforesaid.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 11 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 11 - Unauthorized Business; Restraint by Injunction

Section 11. Upon an information in equity by the attorney general at the relation of the commissioner, the supreme judicial court may restrain by injunction any corporation from assuming or exercising any franchise or privilege or transacting any kind of business not authorized by its charter and the laws of the commonwealth.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 12 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 12 - Free Hospital Beds for Employees of Corporation; Appropriation

Section 12. Every corporation may, by a vote of a majority of each class of stock outstanding and entitled to vote, appropriate not more than five thousand dollars or an annual sum of not more than five hundred dollars for the support of free beds in one or more hospitals in the commonwealth, for the use of its employees.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 12a (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 12a - Contributions to Communities

Section 12A. Every corporation may, by vote of its directors, or of its officers having the powers of directors, contribute such sum or sums of money as said directors or officers may determine to be reasonable to any fund being raised by a relief committee or agency approved by the commissioner of public welfare, as evidenced by a writing filed in his office, and formed for the purpose of raising money to be used for the betterment of social and economic conditions in any community in which such corporation is doing business. Nothing in this section shall be construed as directly or indirectly restricting or otherwise affecting, except as herein provided, the rights and powers of any corporation with reference to payments of the nature above specified.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 12b (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 12b - Reciprocal Insurance Contracts; Exchanges

Section 12B. Any corporation organized or to be organized under the laws of the commonwealth shall have full power and authority to participate as a subscriber in the exchanging of insurance contract specified in section ninety-four B of chapter one hundred and seventy-five. The right to participate in the exchanging of such contracts shall be deemed to be incidental to the purposes for which such corporation was organized, and as much granted as the rights and powers expressly conferred.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 12c (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 12c - Contributions for Charitable, Scientific or Educational Purposes

Section 12C. Every corporation may, by its articles of organization or by-laws or by a general or special vote of its stockholders or members, authorize its directors, or its officers having the powers of directors, to make contributions, in such amounts as said directors or officers may determine to be reasonable, to corporations, trusts, funds or foundations, organized and operated exclusively for charitable, scientific or educational purposes, no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual; provided, that in the case of a corporation having capital stock, contributions in any fiscal year shall not in the aggregate exceed one half of one per cent of its capital and surplus as of the end of the preceding fiscal year, unless contributions in excess of one half of one per cent of such capital and surplus shall be authorized by the stockholders of the corporation at a regular or special meeting, and, in the case of a corporation not having capital stock, contributions in any fiscal year shall not in the aggregate exceed one half of one per cent of the surplus of such corporation as of the end of the preceding fiscal year, unless contributions in excess of one half of one per cent of such surplus shall be authorized by the members of the corporation at a regular or special meeting. Nothing in this section shall be construed as directly or indirectly restricting or otherwise affecting, except as herein provided, the rights and powers of any corporation with reference to payments of the nature above specified.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 13 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 13 - Chartered Corporations; Time for Organization; Commencement of Corporate Existence

Section 13. A corporation created by special charter shall, if no time is limited therein, be organized within two years after the passage of its act of incorporation. Within thirty days after the final adjournment of the meeting for organization of any such corporation, the recording officer thereof shall make, sign, swear to and file in the office of the state secretary a certificate stating the date on which the meeting for organization was held, the names of the officers elected at such meeting and the amount of capital stock, if any, fixed under its charter. The existence of every corporation organized under general laws, the articles of organization of which are required to be filed with the state secretary, shall begin upon the filing of such articles as aforesaid.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 14 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 14 - First Meeting; Holders of Privileges Prior to Organization

Section 14. The first meeting of such corporation, unless otherwise provided in its act of incorporation, shall be called by a notice, signed by the person or by a majority of the persons named in such act, setting forth the time, place and purposes of the meeting, and delivered seven days at least before the meeting to each member or published in a newspaper of the county where the corporation is established. If all the persons so named shall, in writing, upon the charter or a certified copy thereof, waive such notice and fix the time and place of the meeting, no notice shall be required. The persons so named and their associate subscribers to stock before the date of the act shall hold the franchise or privileges granted until the corporation is organized.
MA Gen L ch 155 § 15 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 155 - General Provisions Relative to Corporations|Section 15 - Failure, Refusal or Neglect to Call Meeting; Alternative Method

Section 15. If, by reason of the death or absence of the officers of a corporation, or other cause, there is no person duly authorized to call or preside at a legal meeting, or if the clerk or other officer refuses or neglects to call it, a justice of the peace may, upon written application of three or more of the members or stockholders, or, in case of a corporation organized under chapter one hundred and fifty-six, upon written application of any number of stockholders who are entitled to vote and who hold at least one tenth part in interest of the capital stock entitled to vote at the meeting, issue a warrant to any one of them, directing him to call a meeting by giving such notice as is required by law, and may in the same warrant direct him to preside at the meeting until a clerk is duly chosen and qualified if no officer is present legally authorized to preside.