Worcester Agricultural Soc. v. Mayor and Aldermen of Worcester

• Decision Date: 28 October 1874
• Citation: 116 Mass. 189
• Parties: Worcester Agricultural Society v. Mayor and Aldermen of Worcester
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

116 Mass. 189

Worcester Agricultural Society v. Mayor and Aldermen of Worcester

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

October 28, 1874

Worcester. Petition for a writ of certiorari, setting forth that the petitioner was an incorporated agricultural society, having for its limits the county of Worcester that it was seised in fee of lands on the west side of Seaver Street, in Worcester that the mayor and aldermen of Worcester, by an order dated April 15, 1872, "assessed upon said lands the sum of five hundred and ninety-two dollars, describing the same in said order as the 'grounds of the Worcester County Agricultural Society," pretending that said lands were liable to such assessment, and that said sum is the proportionate share of the expenditure of said city for sewers and drains constructed under the St. of 1867, c. 106; that the assessment had been committed to the collector, who had advertised the lands for sale.

The petition further alleged that the assessment was void for the following reasons: 1. That the assessment was a tax, and the land of the petitioner was exempt from taxation. 2. That the corporate name of the petitioner was not correctly stated. 3. That the mayor and aldermen have designedly omitted to assess any portion of the expenditures of the city for construction of sewers and drains upon houses of religious worship, or upon the real estate of literary, charitable, benevolent and scientific institutions, or upon any of the other classes of property described in the Gen. Sts. c. 11, § 5, except the lands of the petitioner.

The answer of the respondents denied that the assessment was void, and that it was a tax within the Gen. Sts. c. 11 § 5; and averred that the misnomer of the name of the society was no ground of relief; and denied that the respondents had designedly omitted to assess any portion of the assessment for the construction of drains and sewers upon any class of property described in the above section of the General Statutes; but admitted "that houses of religious worship were not included in said assessment."

Hearing before Gray C. J., who reserved the case for the consideration of the full court on the petition, the answer and a demurrer thereto.

Writ of certiorari denied.

W. T Harlow, for the petitioner.

W. A Williams, for the respondents.

Devens, J. Colt & Morton, JJ., absent.

OPINION

Devens, J.

This is a petition for a writ of certiorari to quash the respondents' proceedings in laying an assessment upon the lands of the Worcester Agricultural Society. By the St. of 1867, c. 106, § 1, the city council of Worcester were authorized to make and maintain in said city "all such drains and common sewers as they shall adjudge to be for the public health or convenience,' and by § 4, of the same statute, it was provided that "every person owning real estate upon any street in which any drain or sewer may be laid under or by virtue of this act, and upon the line thereof, or whose real estate may be benefited thereby, shall pay to said city such sum as the mayor and aldermen shall assess upon him as his proportionate share of the expenditure of the city for drains and sewers." Drains and sewers having been constructed by virtue of this act, and the petitioner owning an estate upon the line of such sewers has been assessed a portion of the expenditure, to which...