Morrison v. Howe

• Decision Date: 06 September 1876
• Parties: Hugh Morrison v. Lorenzo G. Howe. Same v. William H. Clemence
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

120 Mass. 565

Hugh Morrison v. Lorenzo G. Howe.

Same v. William H. Clemence

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

September 6, 1876

[Syllabus Material] [Syllabus Material] [Syllabus Material] [Syllabus Material] [Syllabus Material]

Middlesex. Two actions of tort for the conversion of buildings. Trial in this court, before Wells, J., who reported the cases for the consideration of the full court, in substance as follows:

On April 3, 1874, the plaintiff was the owner of certain buildings on the land of another on Green Street and George Street, public highways in Lowell, with the right to remove them therefrom. On April 17, the plaintiff filed petitions with the mayor and aldermen of Lowell, for licenses to occupy and use for the term of four days a sufficient width of certain streets in Lowell for moving the buildings from Green Street, through the public highways in Lowell, to a lot on Elm Street in that city, which the plaintiff owned. Each petition contained the following clause: "In case said license is granted, and in consideration of the same, I hereby agree with the city of Lowell, that I will keep said portion of said streets, so occupied, in a condition to the acceptance of the surveyors of highways of the city of Lowell, and the said building shall be moved without delay." These petitions were granted "on the terms and conditions named in the petition, provided said building be placed on wheels, and drawn by oxen." On April 27, the mayor and aldermen revoked this license, and notified the plaintiff thereof on April 28. On April 29, the surveyors of highways of Lowell, in writing, notified the plaintiff to remove his buildings from the public highways of the city forthwith, and prohibited him from using them for the occupancy or removal of the buildings, for the reasons assigned that they obstructed and incumbered the highways, and hindered, incommoded and endangered public travel; and further, that, "if, after thirty-six hours from your receipt of this notice, said buildings remain on the public highways, we shall remove them therefrom at your expense." This notice was delivered to the plaintiff on April 30, at half past eleven o'clock in the forenoon.

One of the buildings, called the "long block," was about ninety feet long, and for its removal two licenses were granted, each for a building forty-five feet long. In removing this building, the plaintiff cut the same into four pieces of about equal lengths, moved one part through the streets to the Elm Street lot, prepared the next part for removal and removed it into Green Street, and did the same with the third piece. Another building was separated from its ell, prepared for moving, and moved into George Street, and cut so as to be moved in two pieces, and the ell was prepared for moving and moved into and through George Street and into Green Street. Two licenses were taken for this building, one for removal of the main part and another for the ell. Both parts were moved into the streets more than four days before April 29. There was evidence that all these parts of buildings when moved into the streets, and until taken down by the defendants, stood so that horses and wagons could and did pass by them in the streets.

On April 30, the plaintiff, on receiving the notice from the highway surveyors, commenced moving upon rollers, and not on wheels, the second section of the long block which stood in Green Street, and, working all night, got it on to the Elm Street lot on the morning of May 1, at about eight o'clock. He came back and attached his horses to the said third section, and was proceeding to move that on rollers by means of a windlass fixed in the highway and operated by a horse attached to the lever and travelling in a circle in the highway, intending to move that in the same manner in the route designated in the license, to the Elm Street lot, when the defendant Clemence, acting as city marshal of Lowell, and also under verbal direction of the surveyors of highways, stopped the plaintiff's horses and forbade and prevented him from moving it further through the streets. The same was done with the ell and the two parts of the George Street building, and all this was done between eight o'clock in the morning and noon of May 1, and they so remained in the highway until May 2, when the surveyors of highways made the following order: "In board of surveyors of highways. Lowell, May 2, 1874. Ordered: That the city marshal take down the three buildings or portions of buildings in George and Green Streets, supposed to be owned by Hugh Morrison, and incumbering the said streets, thereby incumbering and endangering public travel, and remove the material thereon to the city yard and keep the same there at the disposal of the owners." Under this order, the defendant Clemence, with the defendant Howe, who was superintendent of buildings, and the city men and wagons, on that day took to pieces the main part of the George Street house, as it stood in the street, and loaded the pieces into the city wagons and conveyed them to a lot of land belonging to the city, about three fourths of a mile off, and stored them, and, on May 4, did the same with the ell of that building and also the third section of the long block standing on Green Street. When Clemence so prevented the removal, the plaintiff declared that he should leave the buildings in the hands of the city or of the defendants, and should have nothing more to do with them, and did not go near the buildings again.

There was evidence that the removal of the buildings to Elm Street could have been completed at comparatively small expense if it had not been interrupted, and that when so placed upon Elm Street they would have been of much greater value than by any other disposition of them.

The plaintiff asked the judge to instruct the jury as follows "1. That no license from the mayor and aldermen to remove the buildings through the city was necessary, or required by law. 2. That the plaintiff was not prohibited by law from using the highways of the city of Lowell for the purpose of moving buildings, and is entitled to damages for any injury done that property even though in the highway, unless such injury was authorized by law, and that there was evidence tending to show a conversion by the defendants or one of them. 3. That it should be left to the jury to determine whether the buildings or parts of buildings described, considered in reference to the time and place when and where, and the manner in which they were being moved, were suitable and proper to be moved along the highways of Lowell, established according to law for the general and common convenience of the whole community. 4. That if the jury should find they were suitable and proper, and were being removed in a reasonable manner with due diligence, the defendants would be liable for taking them to pieces and removing them to the city grounds, even though directed to do so by the surveyor of highways, and that under such circumstances the taking them to pieces would be a conversion. 5. That if the plaintiff, acting under the license in good faith and reasonable expedition, moved his buildings into the streets, and, with due diligence, in a reasonable manner, and without unreasonable delay, was moving them towards the place designated in the license, the license was not so revoked as to deprive him of the right to move the buildings over the highway towards the place designated, although the time named for the removal had expired. 6. That it was a misuse or destruction of the buildings to take them down and destroy their character and value; or that the jury should pass on that question, and if they should find it a misuse or unreasonable and unnecessary disposition of the property, or not required by the circumstances, the defendants would be liable in trover, even though they preserved the pieces and offered to return them to the plaintiff. 7. That if the buildings were nuisances or incumbered the travel, &c., as they stood in the streets, the surveyors could only authorize their removal or remove them, and could not legally destroy them, and to take them to pieces would be a conversion, although they offered to return the pieces. 8. That the highway surveyors had no...