Massachusetts General Laws
Chapter 79 - Eminent Domain
Section 7d - Unknown Persons or Persons Under Legal Disability; Manner of Payment of Damages; Apportionment of Damages; Deposits

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.

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