Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 40, § 4 (2026)

Towns; power to contract; purposes

✓ current as of July 2026

Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section MAmalegislature.gov (official) JustiaChapter on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

Section 4. A city or town may make contracts for the exercise of its corporate powers, on such terms and conditions as are authorized by the town meeting in a town, the town council in a town without a town meeting, the city council in a city with the approval of the mayor or the city council in a Plan D or Plan E city with the approval of the manager, or as otherwise authorized in accordance with a duly adopted charter. A city or town may not contract for any purpose, on any terms, or under any conditions inconsistent with any applicable provision of any general or special law.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 29 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1943–2024 · leading case: Massachusetts Gen. Hosp. v. City of Revere, 434 N.E.2d 185 (Mass. 1982).

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

Massachusetts Gen. Hosp. v. City of Revere, 434 N.E.2d 185 (Mass. 1982). · cites it 2× “Municipalities are given the power to contract for health services, G. L. c. 40, § 4, but those contracts may be entered into only by a board of health or a “legally constituted board performing the powers and duties of a board of health.”

Boston Teachers Union v. Sch. Comm., 434 N.E.2d 1258 (Mass. 1982). “G. L. c. 40, § 4. It would be absurd to say that those contracts are unenforceable unless an appropriation has been made for the entire obligation.”

Bay Colony R.R. Corp. v. Town of Yarmouth, 23 N.E.3d 908 (Mass. 2015). · cites it 2× “Even though G. L. c. 40, § 4 prohibited municipalities from entering into a contract for “disposal of garbage, refuse and offal by incineration” for a period exceeding twenty years, 11 the waste acquisition agreement specified that it ran for twenty-three years — until January…”

Kromhout v. Commonwealth, 500 N.E.2d 789 (Mass. 1986). “, G.L.c. 40, § 4; G.L.c. 131, § 60; G.L.c. 142, § 13; G.”

Grass v. Catamount Dev. Corp., 457 N.E.2d 627 (Mass. 1983). “, G. L. c. 40, § 4; G. L. c. 131, § 60; G. L.”

Commonwealth v. Town of Andover, 391 N.E.2d 1225 (Mass. 1979). “See G. L. c. 40, § 4, twelfth par. We see no basis for implying authority in the Commissioner to enter into such contracts.”

Richard D. Kimball Co. v. City of Medford, 166 N.E.2d 708 (Mass. 1960). “232 , where a “Plan A” charter was involved, it was held that § 29 limited the school committee’s authority under G. L. c. 40, § 4, 1 to contract for the transportation of school children.”

K. Hovnanian at Taunton, Inc. v. City of Taunton, 642 N.E.2d 1044 (Mass. App. Ct. 1994). “687, § 7, G. L. c. 40, § 4, second par., provided: “[A city may contract] [f]or the construction of sewers, sewerage systems, and sewage treatment and disposal facilities, for making connections, thereto, and for the collection, treatment, and disposal of sewage, with one or…”

Hayes v. City of Brockton, 48 N.E.2d 683 (Mass. 1943). “271, § 6, amending G. L. c. 40, § 4, dealing with the power of a city to make certain contracts.”

Ballantine v. Town of Falmouth, 298 N.E.2d 695 (Mass. 1973). “” The town has voted to permit the selectmen to enter into an arrangement with someone else to operate the public parking facility on such terms as the selectmen should determine. Such an arrangement was pursuant to an “order” of the town “for the disposal or use of its…”

Cranberry Growers Serv., Inc. v. Town of Duxbury, 613 N.E.2d 105 (Mass. 1993). “G. L. c. 40, § 4. The lease was not authorized by town meeting vote and is invalid.”

The Salisbury Water Supply Co. v. Town of Salisbury, 167 N.E.2d 320 (Mass. 1960). “some *48 time to have inserted in G. L. c. 40, § 4, an express provision authorizing towns to make contracts with water companies for a stated number of years as was done by St.”

Show all 29 citing cases →

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.