2006 Massachusetts Code - Section 11. Manner of assignment.

Section 11. Upon such petition, the court shall issue a warrant to three persons as commissioners, who shall be sworn to perform their duty faithfully and impartially and who shall set off the interest of the surviving spouse by metes and bounds if it can be so done without damage to the whole estate. But if the estate out of which the interest of the surviving spouse is to be assigned consists of a mill or other tenement which cannot be divided without damage to the whole, such interest may be assigned out of the rents or profits thereof, to be had and received by such spouse as a tenant in common with the other owners of the estate.