Mass. Gen. Laws » Part I Title XIII Chapter 79
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 79, § 7D (2026)

Unknown persons or persons under legal disability; manner of payment of damages; apportionment of damages; deposits

✓ current as of July 2026
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Section 7D. If the board of officers by whom a taking has been made is unable, upon reasonable investigation, to determine the name of any person entitled to damages awarded under section six, or if said board of officers determines that any person entitled to such damages is under a legal disability from receiving payment thereof, any check on account of such damages shall be made payable to the treasurer or other officer having like powers of the body politic or corporate on behalf of which such taking has been made, hereinafter in this section and in section seven E called the treasurer, and deposited with him for the benefit of the person or persons entitled thereto. If said board of officers determines that damages awarded under section six should be apportioned between two or more persons having an estate or interest in a single parcel of land, any check on account of such damages may be made payable to the treasurer and deposited with him for the benefit of the persons entitled thereto. The treasurer shall deposit any such check in a savings bank or other like institution, or in savings accounts in a trust company, or invest the same in share accounts in a federal savings and loan association or a savings and loan association located in the commonwealth, or in investments described in section thirty-eight of chapter twenty-nine, to accumulate for the benefit of the person or persons entitled thereto. Such deposit or investment shall be made in the name of the treasurer. When the person entitled to such amount or any portion thereof satisfies said board of officers of his right to receive it, said board of officers shall, after such notice as it may order, order such amount or portion thereof, or the proceeds of its investment, to be transferred to him by the treasurer. Amounts deposited or invested under this section shall be subject to the provisions of chapter two hundred A, relating to unclaimed and abandoned property, and the treasurer shall, insofar as practicable, make such reports and give such notice concerning the same as are required respectively by sections seven and eight of said chapter two hundred A. No action by a taking authority under the provisions of this section shall be construed so as to prevent or delay the operation of section sixteen.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4 cases, 1976–2007 · 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 14× “Because the eminent domain awards were not initially claimed, the money was paid to the Treasurer and placed under his control pursuant *839 to G. L. c. 79, § 7D. When Locator Services ultimately attempted to collect the awards and any accrued interest, the Treasurer paid…”
Eldredge v. Bd. of Selectmen, 18 Mass. App. Ct. 502 (Mass. App. Ct. 1984). · cites it 4× “Unable to determine who owned the ten parcels which made up the locus, the selectmen attributed ownership to persons unknown and presumably (the record is obscure on the point) paid the award to the town treasurer conformably with G. L. c. 79, § 7D. 3 As to one parcel of 6.”
Devine v. Town of Nantucket, 449 Mass. 499 (Mass. 2007). “At the time of the taking, G. L. c. 79, § 7D, as amended through St.”
Truck Terminal Realty Co. v. Boston Redevelopment Auth., 339 N.E.2d 891 (Mass. 1976). “G. L. c. 79, § 7D, as amended through St.”
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.