Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 84, Section 18 governs the notice you must give to the road owner if you want to recover damages under this chapter or Chapter 81 (liability for state highway defects). This is especially important on a city or state owned road, since actions can only be brought under these chapters. How the notice should be given is specified in M.G.L. 84, § 19.
In the following, we will break down the text of this section and discuss each of its parts:
A person so injured shall, within thirty days thereafter, give to the county, city, town or person by law obliged to keep said way in repair, notice of the name and place of residence of the person injured, and the time, place and cause of said injury or damage;
If you sustained bodily injury or damage, you must notify the road owner within 30 days. The notice should include your name and address, when and where the damage or injury happened, and the reason for the damage or injury. If you do not timely provide this information, you can no longer base your claim on M.G.L. 84, § 15 (Paddock v. Town of Brookline, 347 Mass. 230, 1964). If you omit these details, such as your address, the notice is defective (King v. Boston, 300 Mass. 377, 1938). The place and reason need to be sufficiently detailed so the place can be identified and the circumstances can be investigated. For example, “at the funeral home” and “caused by the condition of your premises at the time” are not specific enough (Watts v. Rhodes, 325 Mass. 697, 1950). Certain inaccuracies do not render the notice defective if the the place of injury is correctly stated (Brennan v. Cambridge, 332 Mass. 613, 1955).
The notice should be addressed by title (e.g., to the Town clerk of Boston), not by name (Brown v. Winthrop, 275 Mass. 43, 1931).
The notice does not need to contain other details, such as a claim of damages or threat of action (Laskowski v. Manning, 325 Mass. 393, 1950), or the defect (Murphy v. Boston & Maine Railroad, 332 Mass. 123, 1954).
and if the said county, city, town or person does not pay the amount thereof, he may recover the same in an action of tort if brought within three years after the date of such injury or damage.
You have up to three years after the date of the incident to sue if the road owner does not pay you. There might be specific laws that shorten this time period. For example, the statute of limitations period for a personal injury claim against the MBTA is two years (Lavecchia v. MBTA, 441 Mass. 240, 2004).
Such notice shall not be invalid or insufficient solely by reason of any inaccuracy in stating the name or place of residence of the person injured, or the time, place or cause of the injury, if it is shown that there was no intention to mislead and that the party entitled to notice was not in fact misled thereby.
If you provided a timely notice but the notice was inaccurate, that cannot be held against you if had no intention to mislead the road owner, if the road owner was not misled, and if there are no other reasons to dismiss your notice. This exception only applies to inaccuracies, not to omissions (Marshall v. Cambridge, 310 Mass. 822, 1941).
The words ”place of residence of the person injured”, as used in this and the two following sections, shall include the street and number, if any, of his residence as well as the name of the city or town thereof.
When providing your address, it must include the street name, house number, and city.
Failure to give such notice for such injury or damage sustained by reason of snow or ice shall not be a defense under this section unless the defendant proves that he was prejudiced thereby.
You do not need to provide notice if the damage was caused by snow or ice, unless the road owner can show that he was thereby negatively affected, for example, he was deprived of the opportunity to investigate the circumstances of the accident and gather evidence. The exception for snow or ice related accidents makes sense. Since conditions of snow and ice often change in a matter of hours or days, a notice (timely) delivered after 30 days offers little benefit to the road owner.
If notice was required but not given, you cannot recover damages. An exception is when the town or state erroneously admits in court that notice was given (Brocklesby v. Newton, 294 Mass. 41, 1936).