Kapinos v. City of Chicopee

• Decision Date: 14 May 1956
• Citation: 334 Mass. 196,134 N.E.2d 548
• Parties: Stanley KAPINOS, and others v. CITY OF CHICOPEE and others.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 548

134 N.E.2d 548

334 Mass. 196

Stanley KAPINOS, and others v. CITY OF CHICOPEE and others.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Hampden.

Argued March 7, 1956.

Decided May 14, 1956.

James F. Egan, Springfield, for petitioners.

Foster Furculo, Springfield, for respondents.

Before QUA, C. J., and RONAN, WILKINS, COUNIHAN and WHITTEMORE, JJ.

COUNIHAN, Justice.

This is a petition under G.L. (Ter.Ed.) c. 40, § 53, brought by Stanley Kapinos and fifteen other taxpayers of the city of Chicopee against the city, the mayor, members of the board of water commissioners of the city, hereinafter called the board, and the A. E. Williams Construction Co., Inc., and the Enfield Road Construction Co., Inc., hereinafter called the construction companies. The petition seeks to have declared null and void a contract entered into between the board and the construction companies for the removal of 'fill' from certain land of the city under the control of the board and also to restrain the construction companies from doing any further work under the contract. The case comes here upon what is in effect an appeal from a final decree dismissing the petition after interlocutory decrees sustaining demurrers. There was no error.

The facts alleged in the petition which must be taken as true upon demurrer are essentially as follows: On May 9, 1954, the board voted to lease certain land of the city to the construction companies for the purpose of permitting them to remove 'fill' therefrom. This so-called lease, which is in effect the contract complained of as illegal, reads as follows:

'Lease Agreement

'Agreement made this 14 day of June 1954, by and between the Water Commissioners of the City of Chicopee, Chicopee, Massachusetts hereinafter called the Lessor and A. E. Williams Construction Co., Inc. & Enfield Road Construction Co., Inc., Coadventurers, 4 Locust Street, Hartford 14, Connecticut hereinafter called the Lessee as follows:

'The Lessee hereby leases from the Lessor city owned property near Westover Air Force Base, Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, East of Pendleton Avenue and South-Southeast of Cooley Brook. Said lease to permit removal of fill during the period of construction at Westover Air Force Base. Upon completion of fill removal, Lessee shall grade and slope disturbed areas after disposing of trees, stumps, and brush.

'The Lessor hereby agrees to accept and the Lessee to pay two thousand dollars ($2000) in full satisfaction of the Lease Agreement. Five hundred dollars ($500) to be paid upon completion of this document, five hundred dollars ($500) on November 15, 1954, and the balance, one thousand dollars ($1000) on or about June 1955.'

The present petition was filed on May 18, 1955, and on May 23, 1955, the parties entered into and filed a stipulation in which the construction companies agreed not to remove any more 'fill' during the pendency of this suit. The construction companies had entered upon the leased premises and had removed 'fill' for a period of about eleven months prior to the filing of this petition. They had paid the city $1,000 during that period and nothing thereafter presumably because of the stipulation.

The petitioners allege that the lease or contract was entered into without compliance with the charter of the city and that the board had no power to impose such contractual obligations and liabilities upon the city.

The only issue before us is whether the petitioners in these circumstances are entitled to the...