reglab/housing_qa huggingface dataset:
MA Gen L ch 160 § 72 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 72 - Application for Consolidation; Notice; Hearing; Determination

Section 72. The presidents, or a majority of the boards of directors, or the holders of not less than one third in interest of the capital stock of two or more railroad corporations, may apply to the department for its determination as to whether the consolidation of the railroads of such corporations is consistent with the public interest. If the department, after public notice and hearing, shall find that such consolidation is consistent with the public interest, it shall report its findings to the general court, together with drafts of a law or laws to authorize such consolidation upon the agreement of the corporations to be consolidated, and after ratification by a vote of not less than two thirds in interest of the stockholders in each, and under terms and conditions which will effectually prevent any decrease in the facilities for transportation on the railroad of either of such corporations or any increase in the rates for passengers or freight by the said consolidation, and which will, in the opinion of the department, secure to the commonwealth adequate control over the organization, conduct, and management of the said corporations and railroads, and upon such other terms and conditions as may seem to the department desirable and proper.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 73 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 73 - Rates and Facilities of Consolidated Railroads

Section 73. In case of any lease, purchase and sale or consolidation as authorized by the preceding section, no rate, fare or charge for transportation of passengers or property shall be increased, and no facilities for transportation shall be diminished thereby, nor in connection therewith or as a result thereof shall there be any increase in the aggregate outstanding capital stock or indebtedness of the contracting companies.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 74 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 74 - Violations; Penalties

Section 74. A railroad corporation, which violates any provision of section seventy-one or seventy-two, shall be punished by a fine of ten thousand dollars; and any officer or agent of such railroad corporation who procures, aids or abets such corporation in any violation of said sections, and any partnership, trustee or other person who procures, aids or abets in any violation thereof, shall be punished by a fine of one thousand dollars or by imprisonment for not less than six months nor more than one year, or both.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 75 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 75 - Determination of Method of Crossing Highways

Section 75. No railroad corporation shall purchase or take by eminent domain or enter upon or use, except for making surveys, any land or other property for the construction of its railroad or of any branch or extension thereof until the county commissioners of the county where such land or other property is situated, after hearing the parties, have determined the manner in which the railroad shall cross the highways and other ways within such county, nor until it has obtained from the department the consent required by sections ninety-seven and one hundred and two in all cases in which the county commissioners adjudge that public necessity requires the crossing at the same level; and notice of such hearing shall be given by publication for three successive weeks in one or more newspapers published in such county, the last publication to be at least seven days before the hearing.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 76 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 76 - Estimate of Cost; Subscription for Capital Stock; Certificate of Compliance

Section 76. No railroad corporation shall take by eminent domain or enter upon or use, except for making surveys, land or other property for the construction of its railroad or any branch or extension thereof until a sworn estimate of the total cost of constructing the same, prepared by its chief engineer, has been submitted to the department and approved by it; nor until the department is satisfied that an amount of the capital stock of the corporation equal to at least fifty per cent of such estimated cost has been actually subscribed by responsible parties without any condition which invalidates the subscription, and that twenty per cent of the par value of each share has been actually paid in, and that the authority and consent required by the preceding section have been obtained; nor until the clerk of the department, upon its order, has filed a certificate with the state secretary that this section has been complied with; nor until the corporation has paid to the state secretary a fee of fifty dollars for filing such certificate. The certificate of a master in chancery or a justice of a court of record for the county where a subscriber resides that he owns property in his own name equal in value, above all encumbrances, to the amount of his subscription shall be conclusive evidence of his responsibility. If the department refuses its approval to an estimate or a subscription list so submitted, it shall in writing state its reasons therefor in detail at the time and shall include them in its next annual report.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 77 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 77 - Consent to Locate Within Three Miles of State House

Section 77. No railroad or part thereof which is operated by steam power shall be located or constructed within three miles of the state house without the previous written consent of the department, and of the board of aldermen of any city or of the selectmen of any town where the location is sought.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 78 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 78 - Authorized Purchases

Section 78. A railroad corporation may purchase land for the location of its railroad within the limits of the route fixed under section twenty or twenty-one, and may also purchase so much more land as may be reasonably necessary for the proper construction and security of the railroad and the convenient operation thereof, for one or more new tracks adjacent to other land occupied by it by a track or tracks already in use, and for the purpose of cuttings, embankments, and for procuring stone and gravel, and for stations, car houses, roundhouses, freight houses, yards, docks, wharves, elevators and other structures.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 79 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 79 - Filing of Descriptions With Department

Section 79. The corporation may, within one year after it has purchased land for railroad purposes, file with the commissioners of each county where such land is situated a description thereof, defining the courses, distances and boundaries of such land and certified by the clerk of the department in such form and with such other particulars as the rules of the department may require.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 80 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 80 - Proceedings to Fix Location of Land

Section 80. If a railroad corporation is not able to obtain by agreement with the owner any land necessary for the location of its railroad, it may file with the department a description of such location, which shall not be more than five rods wide unless authorized by the department under section eighty-three. Such description shall define the courses, distances and boundaries and shall be in such form and shall contain such plans and particulars as may be required by the rules of the department. Within ten days after the filing of such description with the department, the corporation shall submit to the board of aldermen of every city, and to the selectmen of every town through which the route of the proposed railroad passes, a copy, duly certified by the clerk of the department, of so much of the said location as applies to that part of the said railroad which lies within the limits of such city or town. The board of aldermen or the selectmen shall thereupon appoint a time and place for a hearing in the manner provided by section nineteen.  If the board of aldermen or the selectmen, after notice and hearing as aforesaid, shall agree with the directors as to said location, or as to any location of the said railroad in their city or town, they shall in such agreement fix the location, and sign and give to the directors a certificate setting it forth, and shall make report of their action to the department within sixty days after the said copy has been submitted to them as hereinbefore provided. If they fail so to agree within sixty days after said corporation has submitted the location to the board of aldermen or to the selectmen, the directors shall, within sixty days, petition the department to fix the location in that city or town, and the department, after notice to the board of aldermen or to the selectmen, shall forthwith hear the parties and, within ninety days, fix the location in that city or town, and shall make a certificate setting forth the location so fixed, which shall be certified by its clerk to the board of directors. The costs of the petition shall be paid by the corporation. The department shall by order finally fix the location of the said railroad in accordance with the original location as varied in the said certificate, subject to the provisions of the following section.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 81 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 81 - Change of Location

Section 81. If a railroad corporation is not able to obtain by agreement with the owner any land necessary for the location of its railroad, it shall furnish a plan of the land to the owner. An owner of land aggrieved by the location of a railroad crossing his land in such manner as to be of grievous damage, which could be avoided without serious injury to others, may, within thirty days after receiving the plan of his land, as provided herein, petition the department, who shall give notice and hear the parties. If it appears that such location will greatly and unnecessarily damage the petitioner, and that it can be so changed as entirely or partly to avoid such damage without material detriment to the line of the railroad and without great injury to other parties, the department shall change such location accordingly. It shall give to each party a certificate of its determination within sixty days after receiving the petition. The necessary expenses of the department and the costs of the petition shall be paid by the corporation; but if the department decides that the petition was frivolous, such expenses and costs shall be paid by the petitioner.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 82 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 82 - Taking of Land

Section 82. After the location of the railroad has been finally determined under the two preceding sections, the corporation may take any land within such location by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 83 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 83 - Taking of Land for Purposes Other Than a Railroad

Section 83. If a railroad corporation requires land for any of the purposes specified in section seventy-eight other than for the location of its railroad not more than five rods wide as provided in the three preceding sections, and is unable to obtain it by agreement with the owner, it may apply to the department, which, after notice to the owner and a hearing, may prescribe the limits within which it may be taken without his permission; and the corporation may, within one year after the decree, take such property by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 84 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 84 - Lands or Rights of Other Railroads

Section 84. A railroad corporation may purchase, or take in the manner provided in the preceding section, from time to time, any lands or rights belonging to any other railroad or other public service corporation not necessary for the business of such corporation at such time or in the reasonably near future, provided that this section shall not authorize it to acquire by eminent domain any part of the location or right of way of any other railroad or street railway company except such lands or rights as the department adjudges necessary for the support, construction and repair of bridges or other methods of crossing such railroad or street railway.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 85 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 85 - Purposes for Change

Section 85. A railroad corporation, with the written approval of the department, obtained upon petition, and after notice to all persons interested, and a hearing, may, for the purpose of improving the alignment of its railroad or for any other lawful purpose, change its location, subject to the provisions of this chapter relative to the fixing of the route of railroads, and may take land for such new location by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 86 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 86 - Change of Direction

Section 86. A railroad corporation, having taken land for its railroad, may vary the direction of said railroad in the city or town where such land is situated; but it shall not locate any part thereof outside the limits of the route fixed under section twenty or twenty-one, without the written consent of the board of aldermen or selectmen, if it was fixed under section twenty, or of the department, if it was fixed under section twenty-one. If the board of aldermen or the selectmen, whose consent is required to such change of direction, shall neglect or refuse to give such consent within sixty days after the railroad company has in writing requested the same, the directors may petition the department for leave to make such change of direction.  The corporation may take land for such new location by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine, and in so far as said new location as finally fixed shall differ from the location originally taken, the original location shall be held to be abandoned, and the rights of all persons interested in so much of the original location as is included within the abandoned part shall revive as if no taking had been made. Any person who has suffered loss or been put to expense by having his lands, buildings, rights or other property included in the original taking, but not included in the final taking, shall be entitled to have his damages therefor assessed under chapter seventy-nine, but the value to him of the use of the land between the time of said taking and the abandonment thereof shall be taken into consideration in determining the sum to which he is entitled.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 87 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 87 - Limitation Upon Tax Exemption

Section 87. Land, outside the location of the railroad five rods in width, taken or purchased for railroad, depot or station purposes shall not be exempt from taxation.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 88 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 88 - Prescriptive Rights of Adjoining Landholders

Section 88. No length of possession or occupancy of land, which belongs to a railroad corporation, by an owner or occupier of adjoining land shall create in him or in a person claiming under him a right to such land of the corporation.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 89 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 89 - Description of Locations of Railroads; Rules and Regulations

Section 89. The department shall, from time to time, prescribe rules relative to the form in which all descriptions of locations of railroads shall be made, the particulars to be contained therein and the manner in which such descriptions shall be uniformly kept for preservation and convenient reference in the offices of the clerks of the commissioners of the several counties. No such description shall be filed until the clerk of the department certifies thereon that it has been prepared in conformity with the rules of the department.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 90 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 90 - Fencing of Railroad Property

Section 90. After a railroad corporation has taken land in the manner hereinbefore authorized, it shall, before constructing the railroad, and, upon request of the owner or occupant, fence it.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 91 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 91 - Eminent Domain; Order Securing Landowners

Section 91. At the time of awarding damages to landowners under chapter seventy-nine, the county commissioners shall in addition thereto order the corporation to construct and maintain such embankments, culverts, walls, fences or other structures as they judge reasonable for the security and benefit of such owners, and shall prescribe the time and manner of making or repairing them, and it shall not be competent for a jury to reverse such order.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 92 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 92 - Enforcement of Order Securing Landowners

Section 92. If the corporation neglects to comply with such order, the supreme judicial court, upon application of the landowner interested in its execution, or his assigns, shall have jurisdiction in equity to enforce the specific performance thereof. Or if the corporation, for more than forty-eight hours after written notice of such neglect, given to the president or superintendent, fails to begin the work required to be done, or thereafter unreasonably delays to complete it, the person so interested may recover in tort double the damages sustained by him by reason of the neglect.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 93 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 93 - Fences and Gates Along Length of Railroad

Section 93. Every railroad corporation shall erect and maintain suitable fences, with convenient bars, gates or openings therein, upon both sides of the entire length of its railroad, except at the crossings of a public way or in places where the convenient use of the railroad would be thereby obstructed, and except at places where, and so long as, it is specially exempted from so doing by the department. Such an exemption granted prior to August first, eighteen hundred and eighty-two shall not be revoked except upon new proceedings had under this section, notice of which shall be given to the corporation, and published once in each of three successive weeks in a newspaper published in each county where the land lies. The corporation shall also construct and maintain sufficient barriers, where necessary and practicable so to do, to prevent the entrance of cattle upon the railroad. A corporation which unreasonably neglects to comply with this and the following section shall, for every such neglect, forfeit not more than two hundred dollars for every month during which the neglect continues, and upon such neglect the supreme judicial court may restrain and prohibit it from crossing a public way, or from using any land until said sections are complied with.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 93a (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 93a - Fences Along Railroad Tracks in Cities and Towns

Section 93A. If the mayor of a city or the selectmen of a town where a railroad corporation is authorized to lay and use tracks are of the opinion that the public safety requires the erection of a fence along such tracks, they may apply to the department, which shall, after public notice, hear all persons interested, and if it decides that the erection of a fence along such tracks is necessary for the public safety, it shall prescribe the manner in and the limits within which it shall be done, and shall forthwith certify and transmit its decision to the railroad corporation and all parties in interest.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 94 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 94 - Recovery by Railroad From Person Required to Fence

Section 94. If a person other than a railroad corporation is required by law or contract to erect or maintain fences along a part of the line of the railroad, the corporation shall erect such fences or keep them in repair as provided in the preceding section, and may recover in contract the reasonable cost thereof from such person. If he is an owner of land adjoining such line, the corporation shall also have a lien upon said land for labor performed and furnished and all materials furnished and used by it in erecting and repairing such fences upon such land, and for the costs which may arise in enforcing it; and it shall be enforced in the manner provided for enforcing liens for labor in chapter two hundred and fifty-four.
MA Gen L ch 160 § 95 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 160 - Railroads|Section 95 - Grade Separation of Railroad Tracks by Agreement

Section 95. If two or more railroad corporations whose tracks cross each other at the same level agree to separate the grades, they may apply to the department which shall thereupon determine when, in what manner and by which corporation said work and each portion thereof shall be done, and shall apportion all charges and expenses caused by making such alterations and all future charges for keeping the necessary structures connected therewith in repair, among said corporations. For said purposes, the corporations may, under the direction of the department, make all necessary changes in the location, grade and construction of said railroads, and, so far as necessary, may take additional land therefor by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine and may raise, lower or otherwise change any and all public ways; and in the exercise of said powers said corporations, and any person who sustains damage thereby, shall have all the rights, privileges and remedies, and be subject to all the duties, liabilities and restrictions provided by law in the case of land taken by railroad corporations.