Gardner v. Callahan
| Decision Date | 06 February 1964 |
| Citation | 347 Mass. 21,196 N.E.2d 301 |
| Parties | Alfred GARDNER et al. v. William F. CALLAHAN et al. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Harold M. Willcox, Boston (Carl M. Sapers, Boston, and Donald N. Sweeney, with him), for petitioners.
Edward O. Proctor, Boston (Richard Ely, Boston, with him), for respondents.
Before WILKINS, C. J., and SPALDING, WHITTEMORE, CUTTER, KIRK, SPIEGEL, and REARDON, JJ.
In this petition for a writ of mandamus the petitioners are the seven members of the special unpaid commission (sometimes called the Massachusetts Crime Commission) 1962, c. 146. The respondents are the three members of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority appointed by the Governor pursuant to St.1952, c. 354. The purposes of the petition are to require the respondents to make available certain records and 'to cooperate fully with the commission in the conduct of its investigation.' The respondents filed both a demurrer and an answer. G.L.(Ter.Ed.) c. 249, § 5. A single justice has reported the case without decision.
Among the grounds of demurrer was If any ground is good, the demurrer should be sustained. Hiller v. American Tel. & Tel. Co., 324 Mass. 24, 25, 84 N.E.2d 548.
By the first paragraph of Res. 1962, c. 146, the commission is directed 'to investigate and study as a basis for legislative action the existence and extent of organized crime within the commonwealth and corrupt practices in government at state and local levels, the existence of conditions which tend or may tend to prevent or interfere with the proper enforcement of the laws relating thereto, the existence of physical, legal and policy limitations on the powers and functions of those charged with the duty of enforcement of said laws and the extent to which the power of the government of the commonwealth in relation to the enforcement of said laws may or should be properly exercised at state and local levels. * * *' The third paragraph of the resolve contains the sentence, 'The commission may require the co-operation of all agencies of state and local governments.'
The petition, after making these quotations from the resolve, alleges that the commission, pursuant to vote of its members, notified the authority that it is required to coperate with the commission by permitting representatives of the commission to have physical access, for the purpose of inspection and copying, to the following records of the authority: ...
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Com. v. Giles
...are defined in the resolve and by this court's interpretation of it. Sheridan v. Gardner, 347 Mass. 8, 196 N.E.2d 303; Gardner v. Callahan, 347 Mass. 21, 196 N.E.2d 301; Gardner v. Massachusetts Turnpike Authy., 347 Mass. 552, 199 N.E.2d 186; Gardner v. Massachusetts Turnpike Authy., 348 Ma......
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Gardner v. Massachusetts Turnpike Authority
...v. Commonwealth, Mass., 199 N.E.2d 175 d. Although the coperation of the Authority may not be enforced in the courts (Gardner v. Callahan, Mass., 196 N.E.2d 301), e the direction that coperation be given declares a legislative policy that these agencies reasonably adjust their own doings so......
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Gardner v. Massachusetts Turnpike Authority
...Res. 1962, c. 146, third paragraph. While we have held that such coperation cannot be enforced in the courts, Gardner v. Callahan, 347 Mass. 21, 196 N.E.2d 301, the provision is presently an did in interpreation. It makes manifest the legislative policy that the work of the Commission shoul......
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...I. The defendants demurred to the bill on several grounds. 'If any ground is good, the demurrer should be sustained.' Gardner v. Callahan, 347 Mass. 21, 22, 196 N.E.2d 301 a. The only ground which is argued in the defendants' brief is that the bill shows 'that the * * * [plaintiffs] were un......