Section 1 Order of payment of debts - Massachusetts Statutes

[Text of section effective until July 1, 2011. Repealed by 2008, 521, Sec. 17. See 2008, 521, Sec. 44.]

Section 1. If the estate of a person deceased is insufficient to pay all his debts, it shall, after discharging the necessary expenses of his funeral and last sickness and the charges of administration, be applied to the payment of his debts, which shall include equitable liabilities, in the following order:

First, Debts entitled to a preference under the laws of the United States.

Second, Public rates, taxes, child support arrears and excise duties.

Third, debts due to the division of medical assistance for estates of individuals dying on or after July first, nineteen hundred and ninety-two, regardless of when the assistance was actually provided.

Fourth, wages or compensation, to an amount not exceeding one hundred dollars, due to a clerk, servant or operative for labor performed within one year last preceding the death of such deceased person or for such labor so performed for the recovery of payment for which a judgment has been rendered.

Fifth, debts, to an amount not exceeding one hundred dollars, for necessaries furnished to such person or his family within the six months last preceding his death, or for such necessaries so furnished for the recovery of payment for which a judgment has been rendered.

Sixth, debts due to all other persons.

If there is not enough to pay all the debts of any class, the creditors of that class shall be paid ratably upon their respective debts; and no payment shall be made to creditors of any class until all those of the preceding class or classes, of whose claims the executor or administrator has notice, have been fully paid.