Chap. 0439 An Act relative to public records.

Be it enacted, etc., as follows:
Section 1. The words --public records", when used in this or any other act shall, unless manifestly inconsistent with the context, be construed to mean any written or printed book or paper, or any map or plan of the Commonwealth or of any county, city or town, in or on which any record or entry has been or is to be made in pursuance of any requirement of law, or any written or printed book or paper, or any map or plan which any officer or employee of the Commonwealth or of any county, city or town is required by law to receive, or in pursuance of any such requirement has received for filing, and any book, paper, record or copy mentioned in either of the five following sections. Every such record of the Commonwealth or of a county, city or town, other than maps or plans, consisting of a book, or sheets to be made into a book, in or on which entries are from time to time made or to be made, shall be of paper made of linen rags and new cotton clippings, well sized with animal sizing, and well finished, preference
being given to paper of American manufacture marked in water line with the name of the manufacturer. The word tk record", in this act without any word of explanation or limitation shall be construed to mean any written or printed book or paper, or any map or plan.
Section 2. Every public board and every head consisting of more than one person, in charge of a department or office of the Commonwealth or of a county, city or town, shall designate some person as secretary, who shall enter in books all votes, orders and proceedings of such board, department or office, and shall have the custody of such books; and every such board or head shall designate some employee or employees to have the custody of the other public records pertaining to the work of such board, department or office.
Section 3. Every public board, and every head consisting of one person, in charge of a department or office of the Commonwealth or of a county, city or town, having in such department or office any public records, shall have the custody of such records. Every city or town clerk shall have the custody of all records • of town proprietaries, and of proprietors of plantations or townships or common lands when the towns, townships or common lands to which such records relate, or the larger part thereof, are within the limits of the city or town of which he is the clerk, and when the proprietors have ceased to be a body politic; also of all records of any church or religious society in such city or town that has ceased to have a legal existence. The secretary of the Commonwealth, clerk of the county commissioners, and city or town clerk, shall respectively have the custody of all other public records of the Commonwealth or of the county, city or town of which he is clerk, when no other disposition of such records is made by law or ordinance.
Section 4. Every original paper belonging to the tiles of the Commonwealth or of any county, city or town, bearing a date earlier than the year eighteen hundred ; every book of registry or other book used for recording, belonging to the Commonwealth or to any county, city or town ; every deed to the Commonwealth or to any county, city or town ; and every report of an agent, officer or committee of the Commonwealth or of any county, city or town, relating to
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streets, townways, sewers, or other state, county or municipal interests or matters, not required by law to be entered in a book and not so entered, shall be safely kept, and every other paper belonging to the tiles of the Commonwealth or of any county, city or town, shall be safely kept for seven years after the latest entry originally made therein or thereon unless required by law to be destroyed at some other time, and no such paper of any county, city or town shall be destroyed unless such destruction is approved by the commissioner of public records.
Section 5. Every board of county commissioners, city government, and board of selectmen, may have made for their county, city or town, copies of the records, within or without the Commonwealth, of counties, cities or towns, or town proprietaries, or proprietors of plantations or townships or common lands, relating to lands, easements and rights of way situated in their county, city or town, and copies of the records of births, marriages, deaths and baptisms kept by a church or parish within their city or town.
Section 6. Every person having the custody of any public records of a county, city or town, consisting of written or printed books shall, at the expense of the county, city or town, have all such books properly and substantially bound, and shall have any such book left incomplete made up and completed from the tiles and usual memoranda, so far as it can be done, and shall have any such books becoming worn, mutilated or illegible, seasonably renovated, repaired or rebound, and fair and legible copies thereof seasonably made, and may cause any such books to be placed in the custody of the commissioner of public records, who shall have the work done at the expense of the county, city or town, in a proper and substantial manner.
Section 7. Every person having the custody of any public records shall on request for any public record in his custody, furnish the same for inspection and examination under his direction, supervision and care, or under the direction, supervision and care of some person designated by him, and shall on request for a copy of any public record in his custody, and the payment of a reasonable fee, furnish such copy : provided, however, that the inspection and furnishing of copies of the public records
of a city or town shall be subject to the reasonable ordinances of the city or by-laws of the town.
Section 8. Every person having the custody of any public records who, under the provisions of any section of this act, shall cause to be made up as aforesaid any public record consisting of a book left incomplete, or shall cause to be made or compared a copy of any public record, shall attest the same and make oath, in the case of such book that it is made up from the usual files and memoranda, and, in the case of such copy that it is a correct copy of the original. Every copy so attested and sworn to shall be admitted in evidence in the same manner and with the same elfect as the original.
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Section 9. Every person wrho is given by law the custody of any public records shall have power to demand, and shall demand, any such record from the person having the same in his possession, and such person shall forthwith deliver such record to such custodian, and every person having the custody of any public records shall safely keep the same in the rooms in which they are usually used, so arranged that they can be conveniently examined and referred to, and shall keep all such records, when not in use, in the fireproof rooms, vaults or safes provided therefor, except the records in the custody of the teachers of the public schools.
Section 10. Every officer or board in charge of a state department, board of county commissioners, city government, and board of selectmen shall, at the expense of the Commonwealth, county, city or town, provide and maintain fireproof rooms, safes or vaults for the keeping as aforesaid of the public records of their department, county, city or town, other than the records in the custody of teachers of the public schools, and shall hereafter furnish for such rooms only fittings of non-combustible materials.
Section 11. Every person having the custody of any public records shall, when succeeded in such custody by another person, forthwith deliver to the successor all public records in his custody which he is not authorized by law to retain, and shall make oath that he has so delivered such records, before, and to be recorded by, the secretary of the Commonwealth, or the clerk of the county commissioners, or the city or town clerk, according as the records so delivered are the records of the Commonwealth, county, city or town.
Section 12. Every person who unlawfully keeps in his possession any public record, or removes any public record from the room in which it is usually kept, or violates any of the provisions of this act, or alters, defaces, mutilates or destroys any public record, shall, for each offence, be punished by a fine of not less than ten dollars nor more than five hundred dollars; and every public officer who neglects or refuses to perform any duty required of him by this act shall, for each month of such neglect or refusal, be punished by a fine of not more than twenty dollars.
Section 13. The provisions of this act shall not be construed as applying to the records of the general court.
Section 14. Chapter thirty-seven of the Public Statutes, section one of chapter two hundred and two of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, chapter three hundred and seven of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, chapters two hundred and twenty-seven and three hundred and ninety-two of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety, chapters two hundred and eighty-one and three hundred and forty of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-one, chapter three hundred and fifty-six and section one of chapter four hundred and two of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and all acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith, are hereby repealed.
Approved May 28, 1897.