Massachusetts § 15C Emergency calls; refusal to yield party line; misrepresentation of emergency

Massachusetts Statutes

§ 15C — Emergency calls; refusal to yield party line; misrepresentation of emergency

Massachusetts § 15C

Part IADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT

Title XXIICORPORATIONS

Ch. 166TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANIES, AND LINES FOR THE TRANSMISSION OF ELECTRICITY

This text of Massachusetts § 15C (Emergency calls; refusal to yield party line; misrepresentation of emergency) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 166, § 15C (2026).

Text

Section 15C. Any person who shall wilfully refuse to yield or surrender the use of a party telephone line to another person for the purpose of permitting such other person to report a fire or to summon police, medical or other aid in case of emergency and any person who shall ask for or request the use of such party line on pretext that such an emergency exists knowing that no such emergency in fact does exist shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than five hundred dollars. Every telephone company doing business in the commonwealth shall print a copy of this section in a prominent place in each telephone directory published by it.

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Section 15C. Any person who shall wilfully refuse to yield or surrender the use of a party telephone line to another person for the purpose of permitting such other person to report a fire or to summon police, medical or other aid in case of emergency and any person who shall ask for or request the use of such party line on pretext that such an emergency exists knowing that no such emergency in fact does exist shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than five hundred dollars. Every telephone company doing business in the commonwealth shall print a copy of this section in a prominent place in each telephone directory published by it.