Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 79, § 16 (2026)

Time for filing petition

✓ current as of July 2026

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Section 16. A petition for the assessment of damages under section fourteen may be filed within three years after the right to such damages has vested; but any person, including every mortgagee of record, whose property has been taken or injured, and who has not received notice under section eight or otherwise of the proceedings whereby he is entitled to damages at least sixty days before the expiration of such three years, may file such petition within six months after the taking possession of his property or the receipt by him of actual notice of the taking, whichever first occurs, or, if his property has not been taken, within six months after he first suffers actual injury in his property.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 23 cases, 1925–2012 · leading case: Locator Servs. Grp., Ltd. v. Treasurer & Receiver Gen., 825 N.E.2d 78 (Mass. 2005).

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Locator Servs. Grp., Ltd. v. Treasurer & Receiver Gen., 825 N.E.2d 78 (Mass. 2005). · cites it 2× “The inclusion of a three-year limitations period elsewhere in the statute, see G. L. c. 79, §§ 16, 41, does not necessarily indicate that the Legislature intended that there be no limitations period for claims alleging additional interest owed under § 7D.”

Whitehouse v. Town of Sherborn, 419 N.E.2d 293 (Mass. App. Ct. 1981). · cites it 4× “4 The pertinent portions of G. L. c. 79, § 16, as in effect in 1960 (as amended through St.”

Eldredge v. Bd. of Selectmen, 18 Mass. App. Ct. 502 (Mass. App. Ct. 1984). · cites it 4× “More than five years after an eminent domain taking by the selectmen of Brewster, substantially beyond the two-year limitation period for damage petitions then prescribed by G. L. c. 79, § 16, the plaintiffs brought a complaint to recover an award the selectmen had made on…”

Cumberland Farms, Inc. v. Montague Econ. Dev. & Indus. Corp., 650 N.E.2d 811 (Mass. App. Ct. 1995). · cites it 2× “A judge of the Superior Court dismissed the action as untimely, but Cumberland argues *616 that as its land (the locus) was not actually taken until September 21, 1990, the provisions of G. L. c. 79, § 16, as amended by St. 1982, c.”

Hamilton v. Conservation Comm'n of Orleans, 425 N.E.2d 358 (Mass. App. Ct. 1981). “We need not consider, however, whether the plaintiff should be allowed to amend her complaint since the final order of the DEQE was issued on February 14, 1980, and an action against the DEQE is not yet barred by the two-year statute of limitations.”

Cann v. Commonwealth, 228 N.E.2d 67 (Mass. 1967). · cites it 3× “We are strengthened in our conclusion that there was a taking rather than some other compensable “injury” within the meaning of G. L. c. 79, § 16, by the manifest purpose served by that section in distinguishing a “taking” from an “injury.”

Devine v. Town of Nantucket, 449 Mass. 499 (Mass. 2007). “The town argues, first, that Devine’s claim of title is barred by the three-year statute of limitations contained in G. L. c. 79, § 16. That limitation provision states: “A petition for the assessment of damages under section fourteen may be filed within three years after the…”

Boyce v. Greater Lowell Reg'l Vocational Technical Sch. Dist., 389 N.E.2d 451 (Mass. App. Ct. 1979). · cites it 2× “814 (1974), on the sole ground that the plaintiffs’ petition for assessment of damages had not been filed within the two year limitation period specified in G. L. c. 79, § 16 (i.e., by August 31,1972).”

Nicklas v. City of New Bedford, 146 N.E. 41 (Mass. 1925). · cites it 2× “At the conclusion of the petitioner’s case, the respondent filed a motion in the Herman case to direct a verdict in the following language: “ The respondent requests the court to direct the jury to return verdict for the defendant for the petitioner failed to file his petition…”

Lichoulas v. City of Lowell, 937 N.E.2d 65 (Mass. App. Ct. 2010). “See G. L. c. 79, §§ 16, 18 (separately establishing limitations periods for challenges to validity and for petitions for damages).”

Hester v. City of Brockton, 146 N.E. 224 (Mass. 1925). “79, *42 when the motion to amend is not filed until after the expiration of one year from the date of such entry? The trial judge ruled that, as matter of law and not as matter of discretion, the court had no jurisdiction to allow the amendment; and reported the case. A petition…”

Caporale v. Bd. of Selectmen, 638 N.E.2d 500 (Mass. App. Ct. 1994). · cites it 2× “Prescinding from the question whether the addition of the locus by vote of the town meeting of Billerica to an eminent domain taking described in the warrant for the annual 1970 meeting impermissibly exceeded the scope of the warrant, the challenge made by the plaintiff,…”

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