2012 Massachusetts General Laws
PART III COURTS, JUDICIAL OFFICERS AND PROCEEDINGS IN CIVIL CASES(Chapters 211 through 262)
TITLE III REMEDIES RELATING TO REAL PROPERTY
CHAPTER 241 PARTITION OF LAND
Section 19 Persons not named in petition claiming assigned shares; partitions by sale

Section 19. A person who was not made a party and has not appeared, who claims the whole or any part of the share assigned to or left for any of the supposed co-tenants in the decree for partition, shall be concluded by the decree, so far as it relates to the partition and the assignment of the shares, as if he had been a party to the proceedings; but he may bring his action for the share claimed by him against the person to whom it was assigned or for whom it was left. Such action shall be brought against the tenant in possession, as if the demandant had originally claimed the specific parcel demanded instead of an undivided part of the land; and it may be brought within the time in which it might have been brought if no such decree for partition had been rendered. If partition is made by sale, the claimant may recover the share of the proceeds to which he is entitled by action against the persons to whom the proceeds were paid, or, before the payment, by a petition in equity in the court in which the partition was made, to which the commissioner or commissioners and all known claimants of the share shall be made parties defendant.