Mass. Gen. Laws » Part I Title XIV Chapter 82
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 82, § 17 (2026)

Jurisdiction

✓ current as of July 2026
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Section 17. The city council of a city and the selectmen or road commissioners of a town may exercise original jurisdiction, concurrent with the county commissioners, of petitions for altering, relocating or making specific repairs upon a highway within the town limits, but except as to such parts thereof as, by such action, become unnecessary for public use, a city or town shall not discontinue any highway or diminish the width thereof, nor shall it assess upon the county any part of the expense of altering, relocating or repairing. The proceedings of cities and towns and their officers hereunder shall be the same as in the laying out of highways or town ways. Nothing in sections seventeen to nineteen, inclusive, shall diminish the powers over highways granted to a city by its charter.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 1 case (1 in the last 5 years), 2021–2021 · leading case: Robert D. Fratus, Jr. v. Town of Harwich & Others., 100 Mass. App. Ct. 27 (Mass. App. Ct. 2021).
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Robert D. Fratus, Jr. v. Town of Harwich & Others., 100 Mass. App. Ct. 27 (Mass. App. Ct. 2021). · cites it 4× “84, § 1, which requires that towns keep highways and town ways in repair, did not create a private right of action, either express or implied, in a homeowner who had not suffered any injury to compel the town in which his property was situated to improve two roads abutting that…”
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