2006 Massachusetts Code - Section 1. Dower and curtesy; nature of estate; claiming of right.

Section 1. A surviving spouse shall hold for life one third of all land owned by a deceased spouse at the time of death. Such estate shall be known as tenancy by dower. Any encumbrances on land at the time of the owner’s death shall have precedence over dower. To be entitled to such dower the surviving spouse shall file his election and claim therefor in the registry of probate within six months after the date of the approval of the bond of the executor or administrator of the deceased, and shall thereupon hold dower instead of the interest in real property given in section one of chapter one hundred and ninety, otherwise such estate shall be held to be waived. Dower may be assigned by the probate court in the same manner as dower is now assigned, and the tenant by dower shall be entitled to the possession and profits of one undivided third of the real estate of the deceased from her or his death until the assignment of dower, and to all remedies therefor which the heirs of the deceased have in the residue of the estate. Curtesy and, except as prescribed herein, dower are abolished.