Amos Locke &Amp; Wife v. Selectmen of Lexington
| Decision Date | 07 March 1877 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
| Parties | Amos Locke & wife v. Selectmen of Lexington |
Middlesex. Petition for a writ of certiorari to quash the proceedings of the selectmen of the town of Lexington claiming to act under the St. of 1873, c. 214, in making excavations to drain certain meadows and low lands in that town, and in assessing the expenses thereof on the estates benefited. So much of the case, as is material to the understanding of the point decided, is stated in the opinion.
Petition dismissed.
C Robinson, Jr., for the petitioners.
G. A. Somerby, (F. F. Heard with him,) for the respondents.
A writ of certiorari lies only to correct the errors and restrain the excesses of jurisdiction of inferior courts or officers acting judicially. Rex v. Lediard, Sayer, 6. Rex v. Lloyd, Cald. 309. In re Constables of Hipperholme, 5 D. & L. 79, 81. The Queen v. Hatfield Peverel, 14 Q. B. 298. The Queen v. Salford, 18 Q. B. 687. Parks v. Mayor & Aldermen of Boston, 8 Pick. 218. Farmington River Water Power Co. v. County Commissioners, 112 Mass. 206.
The selectmen of a town are not a court, and, independently of the St. of 1873, c. 214, exercise no judicial functions which could be revised by writ of certiorari; but only powers which are purely executive or ministerial, or which are not subject to revision at all, as in the case of determining the location of telegraph posts and wires, or which are subordinate to the action of the town, as in the case of the laying out of town ways or the taking of lands for school-houses. Young v. Yarmouth, 9 Gray 386, 390. Robbins v. Lexington, 8 Cush. 292. Hooper v. Bridgewater, 102 Mass. 512.
The St. of 1873, c. 214, passed April 19, 1873, provides, in § 9, that "this act shall take effect" "at a legal meeting called for that purpose." A legal meeting could only be called by a warrant expressing the subject to be acted on. Gen. Sts. c. 18, §§ 21, 22. Such a warrant could not be issued until the statute had been passed, for before that time it could not be known whet the provisions of the statute would be, and therefore no notice could be given, to the inhabitants of the town, of the measure upon which they were to vote.
The case differs from that of the laying out, within the powers existing by law in the selectmen and in the town at the time of the issuing of the warrant, of a town way, the location of which must be filed seven days before the town meeting, and if not so filed the warrant is rendered nugatory. Harrington v. Harrington, 1 Met. 404. Geer v. Fleming, 110 Mass. 39. Gen. Sts. c. 43, § 65. It equally differs from the case of Workman v. Worcester, 118 Mass. 168, in which a statute, which by its terms was to be void unless accepted by the inhabitants of a city within a year after its passage, and which by the general law would take effect on the thirtieth day after its passage, was held to have been legally accepted at a meeting duly called and held within the thirty days.
The by-laws of the town of Lexington require...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Morrissey v. State Ballot Law Comm'n
...to review the action of the commission, or that the petitioners are not proper parties to institute the proceeding. See Locke v. Selectmen of Lexington, 122 Mass. 290;Horton v. Attorney General, 269 Mass. 503, 508, 509, 169 N.E. 552;Compton v. State Ballot Law Commission, 311 Mass. 643, 42 ......
-
Pine Bluff Water & Light Co. v. City of Pine Bluff
...6 Mackey, 148; 40 Wis. 221; 6 Ill.App. 70; 18 A. 1041; 83 Me. 541; 14 S.W. 515; 21 A. 412; 36 Ill.App. 90; 31 id. 378; 39 N.J.L. 489; 122 Mass. 290; 66 Me. 385; 55 215; 45 N.W. 30; 19 A. 332; 79 N.Y. 582; 52 Mich. 540; 42 Hun, 239; 44 id. 574; 80 Ala. 287; 28 A. 553; id. 578; 29 id. 163; 38......
-
Morrissey v. State Ballot Law Commission
...to review the action of the commission, or that the petitioners are not proper parties to institute the proceeding. See Locke v. Selectmen of Lexington, 122 Mass. 290; Horton v. Attorney General, 269 Mass. 503 , Compton v. State Ballot Law Commission, 311 Mass. 643 . The case was heard by t......
-
Ryder v. Town of Lexington
...completed, for assessments were laid and collected. This court held that the act had not been duly accepted by the town, Locke v. Selectmen of Lexington, 122 Mass. 290, and the Legislature passed St.1878, c. 85, authorizing the town to raise money for the payment of the expenses incurred in......