Section 1. A personal action shall not be maintained against a person not an inhabitant of the commonwealth unless he or his agent appointed under section five or five A has been served with process in the commonwealth, or unless service has been made upon him outside the commonwealth, as authorized by chapter two hundred and twenty-three A, or unless an effectual attachment of his property within the commonwealth has been made upon a writ of attachment, and in case of such attachment without such service, the judgment shall be valid only to secure the application of the property so attached to the satisfaction of the judgment.
Structure Massachusetts General Laws
Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases
Title II - Actions and Proceedings Therein
Chapter 227 - Proceedings Against Absent Defendants and Upon Insufficient Service
Section 1 - Actions in Personam
Section 5 - Agents for Service of Process; Duty to Appoint by Certain Individuals; Penalty
Section 6 - Attachment of Realty; Dismissal of Action Upon Failure of Notice
Section 11 - Execution Levied on Land
Section 12 - Judgment in Real Actions
Section 15 - Prosecution Against Persons Served; New Action
Section 16 - Real Actions; Absence of One of Several Defendants