MaDden v. City of Boston

• Court: Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
• Writing for the Court: KNOWLTON, J.
• Citation: MaDden v. City of Boston, 177 Mass. 350, 58 N.E. 1024 (Mass. 1901)
• Decision Date: 02 January 1901
• Parties: MADDEN v. CITY OF BOSTON et al.

177 Mass. 350

58 N.E. 1024

MADDEN v. CITY OF BOSTON et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

January 2, 1901

COUNSEL

Matthews &amp Thompson and E. K. Woodworth, for plaintiff.

Thomas M. Babson, for defendants.

OPINION

KNOWLTON J.

In the view which we take of this case, many of the grounds of defense relied on by the defendants and of the questions of law discussed at the argument need not be considered. If we assume in favor of the plaintiff, without deciding that the persons acting as managers or trustees of the Franklin Fund held by the city of Boston were, at the time of the alleged contract, empowered to bind the city by a written contract for the purchase of land for a trades school, we come to the question whether they made a contract with the plaintiff for the city, as averred in the declaration. The managers or trustees having advertised for proposals to furnish a suitable lot of land in the city of Boston, 'to be for the purpose of erecting thereon a Franklin trades school,' received, among many others, the following: 'Boston, May 16, 1895. To the Trustees of the Franklin Fund, Boston, Mass.--Gentlemen: The undersigned respectfully submits to you for consideration a lot of land which, in my judgment, is most available as regards location for a site for the trades school. There is five hundred thousand feet in the whole lot. You, however, can purchase any amount of feet, as you may see fit. The price per foot to be forty cents. Inclose plan herewith. Respectfully yours, H J. Jaquith.' In making this proposal, Jaquith was acting as an agent of the plaintiff. At a previous meeting it had been unanimously voted by the managers as follows: 'That no selection of a site is to be made, unless such selection shall receive at least eight votes of the board of trustees.' After a consideration of these proposals, and the elimination of all but four of them, a vote of the managers was taken at a meeting held on June 29, 1895, by which each member was to express his preference. After these preferences were made known, it was unanimously voted as follows, viz.: 'That the Parker Hill estate, five acres, having received eight votes, be chosen as the site of the proposed Franklin trades school.' The estate referred to in the letter of Jaquith was the Parker Hill estate, but it contained more than ten acres. On the plan accompanying the letter certain lines were drawn in reference to the offer to sell a part of the lot, indicating the part which the plaintiff and Jaquith thought desirable for the use of the managers, but no survey of it had been made, and its area was not known. The five acres referred to in the vote were five acres in that part of the lot indicated by these lines. It was then unanimously voted 'that the chairman request the city engineer to make a plan showing five acres of said Parker Hill lot, on the northwest corner of said lot, according to the plan filed.'

At that time Alpheus Sanford was chairman of the board of aldermen and chairman of the managers of the Franklin Fund. Sanford made no request under this vote, but afterwards one O'Brien, at the request of the plaintiff, and after indicating his intention to Sanford, and with the assent of Sanford, obtained from a surveyor employed in the office of the city engineer a plan which was made under the direction of O'Brien, and was exhibited by O'Brien to Sanford and to several other members of the board of managers, and no objection was made by any of them to the plan. This plan shows the land described in the plaintiff's declaration. At a meeting of the managers held on December 19, 1895, a vote was passed as follows: 'Ordered, that Alpheus Sanford be authorized, in behalf of the board of trustees of the Franklin Fund, to purchase, on terms stated in the bid of H. J. Jaquith, filed May 16, 1895, five acres of the land offered for sale to the board by said Jaquith, the site having been selected by this board at a meeting held June 29 1895; and it is further ordered that said Sanford is hereby authorized to make the necessary draft on the city treasurer for the purchase of said land, according to the terms of said bid.' On December 20, 1895, a deed was prepared under the supervision of the plaintiff, which purported to convey...