reglab/housing_qa huggingface dataset:
MA Gen L ch 209 § 18 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209 - Husband and Wife|Section 18 - Mentally Ill Persons; Conveyance or Mortgage of Real Estate; Release of Homestead

Section 18. The spouse of a person incapacitated by reason of mental illness desiring to convey said person's real estate absolutely or by mortgage may file a petition in the probate court describing such real estate and praying that homestead therein may be released and stating the facts and reasons why the prayer of the petition should be granted. The court, after notice and a hearing, may by decree, authorize the guardian of the person incapacitated by reason of mental illness to make the release by joining in any deed or deeds, mortgage or mortgages of the whole or a part of said real estate which is or are made within five years after said decree by the spouse of the person incapacitated by reason of mental illness or by a trustee for such spouse.
MA Gen L ch 209 § 21 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209 - Husband and Wife|Section 21 - Mentally Ill Spouse; Reservation of Portion of Proceeds Upon Release of Homestead

Section 21. If the guardian of a married ward that is incapacitated by reason of mental illness, is authorized under section eighteen to release an estate of homestead and the probate court finds that a portion of the proceeds of the real estate sold, or of an amount loaned on a mortgage thereof, must be reserved for the use of the ward, it shall order that a portion, equal to fifty per cent of the proceeds, to be set aside and paid over to such guardian to be invested in a homestead and held by the guardian for the benefit of the ward, if the ward survives the ward's spouse, the rent or use thereof to be received and enjoyed during the life of the ward by the ward's spouse, or until otherwise ordered by the court for cause; and the homestead to be said spouse's and to be conveyed to said spouse by said guardian, if said spouse survives the ward.
MA Gen L ch 209 § 24 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209 - Husband and Wife|Section 24 - Disability of Husband or Wife Provisions; Venue

Section 24. Proceedings under sections eighteen and twenty-one, if the spouse of such a person who is incapacitated by reason of mental illness is an inhabitant of the commonwealth, shall be in the county where said spouse resides, otherwise in a county where any of said spouse's real estate is situated, and a certified copy of all final orders or decrees in such proceedings shall be recorded in the registry of deeds in every county or district where such real estate lies.
MA Gen L ch 209 § 25 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209 - Husband and Wife|Section 25 - Antenuptial Settlements; Force and Effect

Section 25. At any time before marriage, the parties may make a written contract providing that, after the marriage is solemnized, the whole or any designated part of the real or personal property or any right of action, of which either party may be seized or possessed at the time of the marriage, shall remain or become the property of the husband or wife, according to the terms of the contract. Such contract may limit to the husband or wife an estate in fee or for life in the whole or any part of the property, and may designate any other lawful limitations. All such limitations shall take effect at the time of the marriage in like manner as if they had been contained in a deed conveying the property limited.
MA Gen L ch 209 § 26 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209 - Husband and Wife|Section 26 - Antenuptial Settlements; Record; Description of Property

Section 26. A schedule of the property intended to be affected, containing a sufficiently clear description thereof to enable a creditor of the husband or wife to distinguish it from other property, shall be annexed to such contract; and such contract and schedule shall, either before the marriage or within ninety days thereafter, be recorded in the registry of deeds for the county or district where the husband resides at the time of the record, or, if he is not a resident of this commonwealth, then in the registry of deeds for the county or district where the wife resides at the time of the record, if it is made before the marriage, or where she last resided, if made after the marriage. If the contract is not so recorded, it shall be void except as between the parties thereto and their heirs and personal representatives. It shall also be recorded in the registry of deeds for every county or district where there is land to which it relates.
MA Gen L ch 209 § 28 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209 - Husband and Wife|Section 28 - Rights of Married Person Coming From Another State or Country

Section 28. If a married person comes from another state or country into the commonwealth, that married person shall have all the rights, powers and obligations given to married persons by this chapter.
MA Gen L ch 209 § 29 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209 - Husband and Wife|Section 29 - Property Rights Acquired in Other States; Effect of Residence in This Commonwealth

Section 29. If a husband and his wife, married in another state or country, come into this commonwealth, either at the same or at different times, and reside here as husband and wife, she shall retain all property which she had acquired by the laws of any other state or country, or by a marriage contract or settlement made out of this commonwealth. Such residence together here shall have the same effect, relative to their subsequent rights and liabilities, as if they had married here at the beginning of such residence.
MA Gen L ch 209 § 30 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209 - Husband and Wife|Section 30 - Married Person Abandoned by Spouse; Sale or Conveyance; Notice to Opposing Absent Spouse; Jurisdiction of Court; Proof of Abandonment; Retransfer to Opposing Absent Party

Section 30. After the filing of a libel for divorce, or for nullity of marriage or of a petition for separate support or maintenance, and during the pendency thereof, or upon the filing of a separate petition, a probate court may upon motion of a person whose spouse has abandoned him or her and thereby left the abandoned spouse and his or her dependents without sufficient means to maintain themselves may, after giving the respondent spouse notice and an opportunity to be heard, authorize the moving party to sell, convey, mortgage, receive or receipt for any real or personal property of the opposing party which remains in the commonwealth undisposed of by him or her, any property in the name of the opposing party which is beneficially owned by the moving party or by the moving party's minor dependents and any property within the commonwealth held by both spouses jointly, as tenants by the entirety or as tenants in common, and to use and dispose of the same or the proceeds thereof during the absence of the opposing party as if the moving party were sole. Such petition may be filed, heard and determined in the probate court for the county in which the moving party resides. The opposing party shall be given notice as provided for divorce libels when the libelee cannot be located within the commonwealth. Such petition may be filed to satisfy, in whole or in part, an outstanding support order, or to provide for the future support and maintenance of the moving party and his or her dependents. The court shall have jurisdiction in rem of the aforementioned property to enforce an order for support and maintenance. Upon approval of the petition, the court shall transfer to the moving party or shall authorize him or her to sell, convey, mortgage or otherwise use or control such property as is needed for the present and future support and maintenance of, or for use by, the moving party and his or her dependents, including but not limited to residences, motor vehicles and furniture and furnishings. Any deed or mortgage given pursuant to this section shall first be approved by the court and such approval shall constitute conclusive evidence in favor of any purchaser that the authority of the grantor has not terminated.  For the purposes of this section, abandonment shall mean that the opposing party has left the moving party and does not intend to return. Proof that the moving party has not known the whereabouts of the opposing party for the previous twelve months shall constitute prima facie evidence of abandonment. The court may, upon petition of the opposing party, retransfer to him or her so much of the transferred property or the proceeds thereof as remains in the hands of the moving party to which the opposing party may be entitled when such petition is filed.
MA Gen L ch 209 § 31 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209 - Husband and Wife|Section 31 - Non-Resident Married Woman Abandoned by Husband; Conveyance of Realty

Section 31. A married woman residing without this commonwealth, and owning in her own right real estate situated herein, whose husband abandoning and not sufficiently maintaining her has absented himself from the place where they last dwelt together, may petition the probate court in any county where the land lies, describing such real estate and praying for authority to sell and convey it in the same manner and with the same effect as if she were sole. The court, after such notice as it may order, if it finds that the petitioner has been abandoned by her husband and that he does not sufficiently maintain her, may authorize the petitioner to sell and convey within one year from the date of such decree such real estate as if she were sole.
MA Gen L ch 209 § 32d (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209 - Husband and Wife|Section 32d - Judgment for Separate Support; Conveyance of Real Property; Enforcement; Vesting of Title

Section 32D. Whenever in any proceeding under section thirty-two a judgment shall be entered directing that a deed, conveyance or release of certain real estate, or interest therein, be made, such judgment shall create an equitable right to its enforcement subject to the provision for recording of notice in section fifteen of chapter one hundred and eighty-four, in the party entitled thereto by the judgment, and if the judgment has not been complied with within three months after said judgment has been entered and a certified copy of said judgment is recorded or registered in the manner provided by section forty-four of chapter one hundred and eighty-three, then the judgment itself shall operate to vest title to the real estate or interest therein in the party entitled thereto by the judgment as fully and completely as if such deed, conveyance or release had been duly executed by the party directed to make it, and so recorded.
MA Gen L ch 209 § 32e (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209 - Husband and Wife|Section 32e - Judgment or Order of Support; Enforcement

Section 32E. Each judgment or order of support which is issued, reviewed or modified pursuant to this chapter shall conform to and shall be enforced in accordance with the provisions of section twelve of chapter one hundred and nineteen A.
MA Gen L ch 209 § 33 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209 - Husband and Wife|Section 33 - Separate Support or Maintenance; Attachment of Defendant's Property and Trustee Process

Section 33. In an action for separate support or maintenance, an attachment of the defendant's property may be made as upon an action for divorce; and sections seventeen, thirty-three, thirty-five, and thirty-eight of chapter two hundred and eight shall apply to proceedings upon such complaint and to all subsidiary proceedings arising thereunder, so far as appropriate. Trustee process of an obligor's disposable earnings may likewise be made by the filing of a complaint under the provisions of section thirty-six A of chapter two hundred and eight. All procedures under said section thirty-six A of said chapter two hundred and eight shall apply following the filing of said complaint.
MA Gen L ch 209 § 34 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209 - Husband and Wife|Section 34 - Married Person Abandoned by Spouse; Venue

Section 34. An action under section thirty-two or thirty-six may be brought in the county where either of the parties lives, except that if the plaintiff has left the county where the parties have lived together and the defendant still lives therein, the action shall be brought in that county.
MA Gen L ch 209 § 36 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209 - Husband and Wife|Section 36 - Married Person Abandoned by Spouse; Spouse Living Apart; Conveyance and Will

Section 36. A probate court may upon complaint of a person, or if said person is incapacitated by reason of mental illness, of said person's guardian or next friend, enter a judgment that said person has been deserted by said person's spouse or is living apart from such spouse for justifiable cause, and said person may thereafter convey said person's real estate in the same manner and with the same effect as if said person were sole, and the surviving spouse shall not be entitled under section fifteen of chapter one hundred and ninety-one to waive the provisions of a will made by said person or to claim such portion of said person's estate as the spouse would take if said person had died intestate, nor shall such spouse be entitled upon said person's death, if said person leaves a will, to dower in said person's estate, as provided in section one of chapter one hundred and eighty-nine. Section seventeen of chapter two hundred and eight shall apply to proceedings upon such complaint, so far as applicable.
MA Gen L ch 209a § 2 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209a - Abuse Prevention|Section 2 - Venue

Section 2. Proceedings under this chapter shall be filed, heard and determined in the superior court department or the Boston municipal court department or respective divisions of the probate and family or district court departments having venue over the plaintiff's residence. If the plaintiff has left a residence or household to avoid abuse, such plaintiff shall have the option of commencing an action in the court having venue over such prior residence or household, or in the court having venue over the present residence or household.
MA Gen L ch 209a § 3a (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209a - Abuse Prevention|Section 3a - Nature of Proceedings and Availability of Other Criminal Proceedings; Information Required to Be Given to Complainant Upon Filing

Section 3A. Upon the filing of a complaint under this chapter, a complainant shall be informed that the proceedings hereunder are civil in nature and that violations of orders issued hereunder are criminal in nature. Further, a complainant shall be given information prepared by the appropriate district attorney's office that other criminal proceedings may be available and such complainant shall be instructed by such district attorney's office relative to the procedures required to initiate criminal proceedings including, but not limited to, a complaint for a violation of section forty-three of chapter two hundred and sixty-five. Whenever possible, a complainant shall be provided with such information in the complainant's native language.
MA Gen L ch 209a § 3b (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209a - Abuse Prevention|Section 3b - Order for Suspension and Surrender of Firearms License; Surrender of Firearms; Petition for Review; Hearing

Section 3B. Upon issuance of a temporary or emergency order under section four or five of this chapter, the court shall, if the plaintiff demonstrates a substantial likelihood of immediate danger of abuse, order the immediate suspension and surrender of any license to carry firearms and or firearms identification card which the defendant may hold and order the defendant to surrender all firearms, rifles, shotguns, machine guns and ammunition which he then controls, owns or possesses in accordance with the provisions of this chapter and any license to carry firearms or firearms identification cards which the defendant may hold shall be surrendered to the appropriate law enforcement officials in accordance with the provisions of this chapter and, said law enforcement official may store, transfer or otherwise dispose of any such weapon in accordance with the provisions of section 129D of chapter 140; provided however, that nothing herein shall authorize the transfer of any weapons surrendered by the defendant to anyone other than a licensed dealer. Notice of such suspension and ordered surrender shall be appended to the copy of abuse prevention order served on the defendant pursuant to section seven. Law enforcement officials, upon the service of said orders, shall immediately take possession of all firearms, rifles, shotguns, machine guns, ammunition, any license to carry firearms and any firearms identification cards in the control, ownership, or possession of said defendant. Any violation of such orders shall be punishable by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for not more than two and one-half years in a house of correction, or by both such fine and imprisonment.  Any defendant aggrieved by an order of surrender or suspension as described in the first sentence of this section may petition the court which issued such suspension or surrender order for a review of such action and such petition shall be heard no later than ten court business days after the receipt of the notice of the petition by the court. If said license to carry firearms or firearms identification card has been suspended upon the issuance of an order issued pursuant to section four or five, said petition may be heard contemporaneously with the hearing specified in the second sentence of the second paragraph of section four. Upon the filing of an affidavit by the defendant that a firearm, rifle, shotgun, machine gun or ammunition is required in the performance of the defendant's employment, and upon a request for an expedited hearing, the court shall order said hearing within two business days of receipt of such affidavit and request but only on the issue of surrender and suspension pursuant to this section.
MA Gen L ch 209a § 3c (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209a - Abuse Prevention|Section 3c - Continuation or Modification of Order for Surrender or Suspension

Section 3C. Upon the continuation or modification of an order issued pursuant to section 4 or upon petition for review as described in section 3B, the court shall also order or continue to order the immediate suspension and surrender of a defendant's license to carry firearms and firearms identification card and the surrender of all firearms, rifles, shotguns, machine guns or ammunition which such defendant then controls, owns or possesses if the court makes a determination that the return of such license to carry firearms and firearm identification card or firearms, rifles, shotguns, machine guns or ammunition presents a likelihood of abuse to the plaintiff. A suspension and surrender order issued pursuant to this section shall continue so long as the restraining order to which it relates is in effect; and, any law enforcement official to whom such weapon is surrendered may store, transfer or otherwise dispose of any such weapon in accordance with the provisions of section 129D of chapter 140; provided, however, that nothing herein shall authorize the transfer of any weapons surrendered by the defendant to anyone other than a licensed dealer. Any violation of such order shall be punishable by a fine of not more than $5,000 or by imprisonment for not more than two and one-half years in a house of correction or by both such fine and imprisonment.
MA Gen L ch 209a § 3d (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209a - Abuse Prevention|Section 3d - Transmission of Report Containing Defendant's Name and Identifying Information and Statement Describing Defendant's Alleged Conduct and Relationship to Plaintiff to Department of Criminal Justice Information Services Upon Order for Suspension or Surrender

Section 3D. Upon an order for suspension or surrender issued pursuant to sections 3B or 3C, the court shall transmit a report containing the defendant's name and identifying information and a statement describing the defendant's alleged conduct and relationship to the plaintiff to the department of criminal justice information services. Upon the expiration, cancellation or revocation of the order, the court shall transmit a report containing the defendant's name and identifying information, a statement describing the defendant's alleged conduct and relationship to the plaintiff and an explanation that the order is no longer current or valid to the department of criminal justice information services who shall transmit the report, pursuant to paragraph (h) of section 167A of chapter 6, to the attorney general of the United States to be included in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
MA Gen L ch 209a § 4 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 209a - Abuse Prevention|Section 4 - Temporary Orders; Notice; Hearing

Section 4. Upon the filing of a complaint under this chapter, the court may enter such temporary orders as it deems necessary to protect a plaintiff from abuse, including relief as provided in section three. Such relief shall not be contingent upon the filing of a complaint for divorce, separate support, or paternity action.  If the plaintiff demonstrates a substantial likelihood of immediate danger of abuse, the court may enter such temporary relief orders without notice as it deems necessary to protect the plaintiff from abuse and shall immediately thereafter notify the defendant that the temporary orders have been issued. The court shall give the defendant an opportunity to be heard on the question of continuing the temporary order and of granting other relief as requested by the plaintiff no later than ten court business days after such orders are entered.  Notice shall be made by the appropriate law enforcement agency as provided in section seven.  If the defendant does not appear at such subsequent hearing, the temporary orders shall continue in effect without further order of the court.