Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 84, § 24 (2026)

Damage from defects in dedicated ways

✓ current as of July 2026

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

Section 24. The board or officer having authority over public ways in a town shall, if the public safety so requires, cause such ways to be closed where they enter upon and unite with an existing public way or may by other sufficient means caution the public against entering thereon; otherwise the town shall be liable for damages arising from defects therein as in the case of ways duly laid out and established.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 3 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1932–2025 · leading case: Fenn v. Town of Middleborough, 386 N.E.2d 40 (Mass. App. Ct. 1979).

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

Fenn v. Town of Middleborough, 386 N.E.2d 40 (Mass. App. Ct. 1979). “The presence of such signs, if not offset by signs warning the public that the ways are private, might have relevance to the statutory liability of the city under G. L. c. 84, § 24, for defects in unposted private ways dedicated to public use; but in our opinion such signs…”

Teague v. City of Boston, 179 N.E. 806 (Mass. 1932). · cites it 2× “It is provided by G. L. c. 84, § 24: "The board or officer having authority over public ways in a town shall, if public safety so requires, cause such ways to be closed where they enter upon and unite with an existing public way or may by other sufficient means caution the…”

Town of Concord v. Neil E. Rasmussen & Others (Mass. 2025). “See also G. L. c. 84, § 24 (providing means of avoiding liability for safety risks on dedicated ways because "otherwise the town shall be liable for damages arising from defects therein as in the case of ways duly laid out and established" [emphases added]).”

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.