Mass. Gen. Laws » Part I Title XX Chapter 143
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 143, § 23 (2026)

Articles obstructing stairways

✓ current as of July 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section MAmalegislature.gov (official) JustiaChapter on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

Section 23. Every stairway of every building shall be kept free and unobstructed, and any person who permits any article to remain in any stairway of any building in such a manner as may impede the egress of any person lawfully in said building or the ingress of any person lawfully entitled to enter said building shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars. The existence of any article in any such stairway in any building shall be prima facie evidence that it was placed or permitted to remain therein by the owner, lessee, tenant or occupant of the building.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 1 case, 1973–1973 · leading case: Boston Hous. Auth. v. Hemingway, 293 N.E.2d 831 (Mass. 1973).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
Boston Hous. Auth. v. Hemingway, 293 N.E.2d 831 (Mass. 1973). · cites it 2× “[2] *210 The net result of this court's interpretation of these statutes was (a) that the owner of a dwelling unit which did not comply with the prescribed minimum standards could be prosecuted criminally, (b) that if he rented the unit without correcting the violations the…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.