City of Springfield v. Springfield Street Railway Co.

97 N.E.2d 196, 327 Mass. 4
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedFebruary 8, 1951
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 97 N.E.2d 196 (City of Springfield v. Springfield Street Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Springfield v. Springfield Street Railway Co., 97 N.E.2d 196, 327 Mass. 4 (Mass. 1951).

Opinion

Wilkins, J.

The plaintiff appeals from an interlocutory decree sustaining a demurrer to its bill of complaint and from a final decree dismissing the bill. The final decree contains the phrase, “all parties interested ■ — consenting hereto — in open court.” The parties at the arguments before us agreed that the inclusion of this phrase was in error, and the defendant, with the plaintiff’s assent, has since filed a motion in this court to expunge nunc pro tune. The subject matter of the motion was not brought to the attention of the judge by whose order the final decree was entered. Indeed, it was too late to do so. Burbank v. Farnham, 220 Mass. 514, 516. Eustace v. Dickey, 240 Mass. 55, 87. Obviously, counsel cannot agree among themselves upon a revision of that decree. Commonwealth v. Suffolk Trust Co. 161 Mass. 550, 551. Dorsey v. Corkery, 227 Mass. 498, 500. Goodwin v. Walton, 298 Mass. 451, 452. Smith v. Wheeler, 326 Mass. 223, 224. See Gordon v. Guernsey, 316 Mass. 106, 107-108. We do not pause to decide whether the plaintiff’s consent to the final decree effectively bars all right of appeal (see Emery v. Seavey, 144 Mass. 403; Preston v. Henshaw, 192 Mass. 34), because the plaintiff cannot prevail on the merits.

[6]*6The bill, purportedly brought under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 159A, § 15, alleges the following. The defendant operates motor vehicles upon the public ways of the city “for the carriage of passengers for hire, in such a manner as to afford a means of transportation similar to that afforded by a railway company, by indiscriminately receiving and discharging passengers ” along certain routes. G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 159A, § 1. Pursuant to St. 1913, c. 429, the city council by ordinance delegated to the traffic and transportation board of the city the right to issue licenses for the operation of such motor vehicles. Allegedly, pursuant to G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 159A, § 1, the city council adopted an ordinance (Revised Ordinances of the City of Springfield, 1945, c. 11) which provides (§11) that a license shall specify the route over which a vehicle may be operated; that no vehicle shall on any trip be operated over less than the entire route; and (§ 12) that the traffic and transportation board may at any time change any route or transfer any licensee from one route to another. The board has issued a license to the defendant to operate motor vehicles over certain streets, “known as the Maple St. bus line.” On December 13, 1946, the board voted that the defendant “shall extend the . present Maple Street bus line through the East Alvord and West Alvord Street loop, giving at least one-half hourly service between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Without disturbing the service of the present Orange Street line extension through Plumtree Road to Pennsylvania Avenue,” •and shall “present a schedule of operation” at the next meeting of the board. On February 10,1947, the city council passed, and the mayor approved, an order ratifying the vote of the board. The defendant has refused to obey the vote and the order. There are prayers (1) for a permanent injunction restraining the defendant from operating its motor vehicles on the Maple Street bus line without operating them through “the East Alvord and West Alvord Street loop ” in accordance with the vote and the order; and (2) for a mandatory injunction ordering the defendant to operate its motor vehicles in accordance with the vote and the order.

[7]*7There are five grounds of the demurrer, which, after setting up want of equity in the first three, reads: “4. The bill of complaint discloses that the city of Springfield through its traffic and transportation board is seeking to determine the adequacy of the service rendered by the respondent street railway company without setting out any authority by general law or special act of the General Court or any provision of the city charter of the city of Springfield which confers upon the city of Springfield or the traffic and transportation board (which exist and act under specific, limited powers delegated by the General Court) the power to require the respondent street railway company to operate a bus line over a prescribed route between two particular termini when the respondent itself neither seeks nor desires to operate any bus line over the proposed route between the given termini designated by the traffic and transportation board. 5. The bill of complaint discloses that the city of Springfield through its traffic and transportation board is seeking to preempt the State department of public utilities of its exclusive jurisdiction under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 159, §§ 10, 12 (b), (c), and 16, and c. 159A, § 7 and § 10 as amended by St. 1945, c. 585, to determine the adequacy of the service rendered by the respondent street railway company by ordering the respondent to operate a bus line over a prescribed route between two particular termini for which route the respondent has not requested a license and which it does not seek or desire to operate, which order of the traffic and transportation board' is beyond the authority of said board and an invasion of the statutory jurisdiction of the department of public utilities.”

The delegation by the city council to the traffic and transportation board of the power to issue licenses was valid under a special act relating to the city of Springfield. St. 1913, c. 429. Commonwealth v. Slocum, 230 Mass. 180. But § 12 of c. 11 of the Revised Ordinances of the City of Springfield, 1945, which purports to give the board authority to change the routes specified in licenses and to transfer licensees from one route to another, is invalid because repugnant to certain [8]*8statutes hereinafter discussed. While the city has important powers under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 159A, including (§1) the initial right, with immaterial exceptions (§§ 3, 5), to approve or not to approve a license application (Burgess v. Mayor & Aldermen of Brockton, 235 Mass. 95, 102), a license once approved by it is subject to the paramount authority of the department of public utilities, which has “general supervision and regulation of, and jurisdiction and control over such common carriers to the same extent as it has over railway companies,” with an immaterial exception (§ 10).1 It is true that a “license shall specify the route or routes over which the motor vehicles used thereunder may be operated,” and a “licensee shall not operate motor vehicles . . . otherwise than upon routes specified in the license or licenses issued to him” (§2). But, on the other hand, “No person shall operate a motor vehicle under a license issued as aforesaid unless he has also obtained from the department a certificate declaring that public convenience and necessity require such operation. . . . Such certificate shall specify the route or routes over which the motor vehicles . . . may operate, and may prescribe the period during which the rights granted therein or in such license may be exercised, and may attach to the exercise of said rights such terms and conditions as the department shall deem that public convenience and necessity may require. [Barrows v. Farnum’s Stage Lines, Inc. 254 Mass. 240, 244. Commonwealth v. Boston & Maine Transportation Co. 282 Mass. 345, 348.] The department, after notice and hearing, may revoke any such certificate for cause, and may, in like manner, revise any provisions thereof and any of the terms and conditions of such certificate or license.

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Bluebook (online)
97 N.E.2d 196, 327 Mass. 4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-springfield-v-springfield-street-railway-co-mass-1951.