Saunders v. City of Nashua

• Decision Date: 17 March 1899
• Citation: 69 N.H. 492,43 A. 620
• Parties: SAUNDERS v. CITY OF NASHUA.
• Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court

43 A. 620

69 N.H. 492

SAUNDERS

v. CITY OF NASHUA.

Supreme Court of New Hampshire. Hillsboro.

March 17, 1899.

Exceptions from Hillsboro county.

Action by one Saunders against the city of Nashua. Verdict for plaintiff was ordered, and defendant excepted. Exceptions overruled.

Assumpsit for services. Facts found by the court: The plaintiff was the city engineer of Nashua for the years 1893, 1894, and 1895. The duties of the office, as defined by the city ordinance, were, in part, to "make all such surveys, estimates, measurements, and levels, and perform such other duties as may be required of him by the mayor, board of aldermen, or any committee of the city councils or either board thereof"; to collect and file in his office, under the direction of the city councils, "accurate plans of all public grounds, commons, streets, sewers, and main drains, showing all entrances thereto, and all estates abutting thereon, with their frontage and owners' names"; to "make or cause to be made complete and accurate plans of public grounds at present existing or that may be hereafter laid out," and to make or cause to be made a complete and accurate profile of all public streets at present existing or that may hereafter be laid out, with lines showing the grade of sidewalks. The ordinance provides that the engineer "shall receive twelve hundred dollars per annum for his services as such." March 10, 1891, the city councils resolved "that a system of maps for the use of the assessors and the engineering department be adopted, and that a committee of five be appointed to oversee the engineering department during the making of said maps; * * * the cost of said maps to be charged to the department of city engineering; said maps to be made by the city engineer, and a sum not to exceed two thousand dollars be appropriated for the year 1891, to defray the expense of labor on said maps." The work was begun by the plaintiff's predecessor, and continued by the plaintiff while he held the office. It required that surveys of lands and streets should be made, abstracts of some 6,000 titles to land should be procured, and an index should be prepared. The plaintiff was paid, in addition to the salary attached to the office, for services rendered upon the maps in the years 1893 and 1894, and expected to be paid for those rendered in 1895. The defendants' motion that the plaintiff be nonsuited was denied, subject to exception, and a verdict for the plaintiff was ordered. The...