2012 Massachusetts General Laws
PART II REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS(Chapters 183 through 210)
TITLE II DESCENT AND DISTRIBUTION, WILLS, ESTATES OF DECEASED PERSONS AND ABSENTEES, GUARDIANSHIP, CONSERVATORSHIP AND TRUSTS
CHAPTER 204 GENERAL PROVISIONS RELATIVE TO SALES, MORTGAGES, RELEASES, COMPROMISES, ETC., BY EXECUTORS, ETC.
Section 14 Controversies; arbitration or compromise by fiduciaries

[ Text of section effective until March 31, 2012. Repealed by 2008, 521, Sec. 29. See 2008, 521, Sec. 44 as amended by 2010, 409, Sec. 23 and 2011, 224.]

Section 14. The supreme judicial court or the probate court may authorize an executor, administrator, guardian, conservator, receiver, commissioner or other fiduciary officer appointed by the probate court, or a trustee, to adjust by arbitration or compromise any controversy or question as to the administration or distribution of the estate in his possession, or as to his accounting therefor, or as to any matter relating to said estate, or as to the construction of a will or trust created by a written instrument, or as to his power and authority thereunder, or as to any controversy growing out of said will or instrument that may arise between him and any other person or the guardian or conservator of any person interested under said will or instrument or in said estate, or between claimants or the guardians or conservators of claimants to said estate, to which arbitration or compromise, in the form of an agreement in writing, such executor, administrator, guardian, conservator, receiver, commissioner or other fiduciary officer or trustee, and all other persons in being and of full age and not under guardianship, and the guardian or conservator, if any, of all other persons who claim a vested interest in said estate, whose interests will, in the opinion of the court, be affected by the proposed arbitration or compromise, shall be parties. An award or compromise made in writing in such a case, if found by the court to be just and reasonable in its effects upon the interests of minors and persons under guardianship or conservatorship, and upon any future contingent interests in said estate, shall, when approved by the court, be valid and binding upon all such interests and upon the original parties to said agreement, and a decree shall be entered accordingly. If the court finds that any minor or person without legal capacity or under guardianship, or any future contingent interests, may be affected, it may appoint some person or persons to represent such minor or person without legal capacity or under guardianship, or future contingent interests in such controversy, question, administration or account upon such conditions as to costs as it may order.