City of Fall River v. County Comm'rs of Bristol

• Decision Date: 11 November 1878
• Citation: City of Fall River v. County Comm'rs of Bristol, 125 Mass. 567 (Mass. 1878)
• Parties: City of Fall River v. County Commissioners of Bristol
• Court: Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

125 Mass. 567

City of Fall River v. County Commissioners of Bristol

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

November 11, 1878

Bristol. Petition for a writ of certiorari to quash the proceedings of the county commissioners of Bristol in abating a tax assessed by the petitioner in 1876 upon the Watuppa Reservoir Company. Hearing upon the petition and answer before Ames, J., who reserved the case for the consideration of the full court. The facts appear in the opinion.

Petition dismissed.

M Reed, for the petitioner.

J. M. Morton, Jr., for the respondents.

Morton, J. Endicott & Lord, JJ., absent.

OPINION

Morton, J.

It appears from the return of the county commissioners that the tax in question was assessed upon a reservoir company, under the St. of 1872, c. 306, in the terms following: "Reservoir of water used to maintain a uniform supply of water for mill purposes, with the dam connected therewith, and the land under the same." and that this was the only tax assessed by the city of Fall River upon said reservoir company during the year 1876. In Cheshire v. County Commissioners, 118 Mass. 386, it was held that this statute was unconstitutional and void. It necessarily follows that the tax in question was illegal.

The claim of the petitioner, that this tax may be upheld because the reservoir company was taxable for a part of its property cannot be sustained. One sufficient answer is, that it had no property which was liable to taxation. It did not own the dam, nor any of the land covered by the pond. The dam was built at the outlet of the Watuppa ponds, which were great...