Cole v. Chief of Police of Fall River

• Decision Date: 04 December 1942
• Citation: 312 Mass. 523,45 N.E.2d 400
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
• Parties: HAROLD E. COLE v. CHIEF OF POLICE OF FALL RIVER & others.

312 Mass. 523

45 N.E.2d 400

HAROLD E. COLE v. CHIEF OF POLICE OF FALL RIVER & others.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

December 4, 1942

November 10, 1942.

Present: FIELD, C.

J., DONAHUE, QUA COX, & RONAN, JJ.

Supreme Judicial Court, Moot question. Equity Pleading and Practice, Decree.

The issues in a suit in equity commenced by a candidate for public office several months before a primary preceding the election, to enjoin the police authorities of a city from threatened interference with certain political advertising by the plaintiff on the ground that it was in violation of a city ordinance, had become moot when the case reached this court after the plaintiff had been defeated at the primary and the candidate of his party had been defeated at the election although he intended to use the advertising in the city in future political campaigns.

Upon appeal from a final decree dismissing the bill in a suit in equity, where the issues involved in the suit appeared to have become moot by the time the case was reached in this court, the decree should be modified by inserting a provision that the bill was dismissed on that ground, and as so modified the decree was affirmed.

BILL IN EQUITY filed in the Superior Court on June 4, 1942. The suit was heard by Williams, J., upon a case stated. Final decrees dismissing the bill were entered on July 27, 1942. The plaintiff appealed.

An affidavit filed by the plaintiff in this court contained the following, among other statement: ". . . it is his intention to use said sign in Fall River streets or highways in the near future and also to use it in Fall River as aforesaid in a political campaign, unless doing so is finally decided to be unlawful. That specifically plaintiff plans to be a candidate for public office in the near future in a district or territory that includes Fall River, Massachusetts, and to use said sign in the streets or highways of Fall River for the primary purpose of displaying advertising signs. . . . That he intends in the near future to use said sign in the manner aforesaid in Fall River streets to call attention to his political or governmental views as the occasion presents itself, irrespective of his candidacy for any political office, and has kept said sign and the vehicle on which it is carried intact for that purpose and has continued the license registration . . . . That in future political campaigns in said Fall River he will again be similarly and substantially handicapped through his inability to use said sign for many months during the campaign until after this court has passed upon the constitutionality of said ordinance which in the normal course of events would take more than six months from the time suit was started. The fact that he has carried on this case after the primary is proof of plaintiff's intention to continue to use signs as aforesaid in the future. . . . That this very same case will almost immediately be started on its way to this court again, is practically certain, as opposing parties have expressed their intention to carry on as they did, namely, the police chief to enforce the ordinance and the plaintiff to violate it and challenge its constitutionality in court. A decision of the court now will prevent a recurrence of the conflict with Fall River police authorities, and will save plaintiff from the handicap of again losing many months campaigning time in Fall River with said sign."

H. E. Cole, pro se. R. C. Westgate, for the defendants.

RONAN, J. The plaintiff, a candidate for the office of representative in Congress from the Fourteenth Congressional District of Massachusetts, equipped an automobile and trailer, both registered in his name, with signs directing attention to the record of his opponent and informing the public that he was a candidate for the office. The trailer carried a large board approximately fifteen feet long and seven feet wide, on each of the two faces of which was a sign attacking the public record of his opponent. The automobile bore a sign approximately four feet long and three feet high which announced the candidacy of the plaintiff and referred to his opponent as an ex-congressman. On the morning of May 30 1942, while the automobile and trailer were being operated along a public street in Fall River by an agent of the plaintiff, the said agent was informed by the defendant Verville, a captain in the police department of Fall River, that he was...