Commonwealth v. Blue-Hill Turnpike Corp.

5 Mass. 420
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedOctober 15, 1809
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 5 Mass. 420 (Commonwealth v. Blue-Hill Turnpike Corp.) 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
Commonwealth v. Blue-Hill Turnpike Corp., 5 Mass. 420 (Mass. 1809).

Opinion

Parsons, C. J.

This writ was sued at the motion of the Blue-Hill Turnpike Corporation, to quash the proceedings of the Sessions, in issuing a warrant to the sheriff to inquire by a jury into the damages awarded * to Patrick Jeffrey by [*421] the committee who located the turnpike, in receiving the verdict, and in the judgment entered thereon.

Several objections have been made to the conduct of the sheriff and of the jury; and witnesses have been produced to prove the [328]*328facts on which those objections are grounded; but as these objections do not appear on the record certified, we cannot take notice of them.

The objection apparent on the record which is relied on, is to the order of Sessions made on the return of the verdict. The Sessions have not only ordered the verdict to be recorded, b.ut they have further ordered, that the sum assessed be paid by the corporation within six months, and that, in default thereof, a warrant of distress be levied on the personal property of the proprietors. This last order is objected to as bad, because the corporation, in its corporate capacity, is alone liable for the payment, and not the personal property of the corporators. The act. creating this corporation [<SW. of 1803, c. 130.], provides that “ the corporation shall be liable to pay all damages which may arise to any person by taking his land for the road,” to be estimated by a committee of the Sessions, saving to either party the right of trial by jury, according to the law which makes provision for the recovery of damages arising from laying out highways. The statute of the same year, c. 150., also enacts that whenever a committee or jury shall be appointed to estimate the damages arising from locating turnpikes, the turnpike corporation, being a party, shall be liable to costs in those cases in like manner as counties are liable in cases of county roads. And the statute of 1804, c. 125., defining the powers and duties of turnpike corporations, also provides that the corporations shall be liable to pay all damages that may be estimatéd by the locating committee, saving to either party a right of trial by jury respecting damages only, accord- [ * 422 ] ing * to the law making provision for the recovery of damages arising from the laying out of highways.

From these acts it is very clear that the corporation shall be answerable, and not the corporators, for the damages any owner of land has sustained, whether the same be assessed by a committee, or by a jury.

As the law regulating the laying out of county roads directs the damages first to be estimated by the locating committee, and after-wards to be assessed by a jury on the petition of either party ag grieved at the estimation, which jury have power also to alter the location, and as these damages may be recovered against the inhabitants of the town through which the road passes, by a warrant of distress, which may be levied on the personal estate of any inhabitant ; it has been argued that the like remedy is by analogy provided against turnpike corporations.

But there does not appear to be much analogy in the two cases. The funds which towns have, out of which they can pay these damages, is the individual property of the several inhabitants, who [329]*329may be compelled to contribute by the payment of a tax, to be assessed and collected for this purpose. A turnpike corporation has not this remedy. It may assess on each share an equal proportion of the damages, and if the owner does not choose to pay, his share may be sold, and it may bring much less than that proportion.

But the great difference lies in the want of a remedy for the corporator, whose estate may be taken by distress, against the corporation ; whereas an action is expressly given to the inhabitant of a town to recover, against the town neglecting to pay the damages, all the money he has paid on the warrant of distress.

There is not, therefore, a sufficient analogy, from which we can determine, that money expressly charged on the corporation can be recovered against the personal property of any of the corporators.

* It has been further argued, that if a turnpike cor- [ * 423 ] poration refuse to pay the damages, the owner of the land may have no effectual remedy, as the corporation may have no corporate property.

This case may exist, and the legislature might have guarded against it, by providing that the location of the road should have no effect, until the damages were paid, tendered or secured. Or the legislature may, by legal process, cause the franchise to be seized for the commonwealth, as the powers of the corporation have been abused. In that case, the commonwealth holding the franchise, may pay the owner of the land, or extinguish the franchise, and restore the land to him. However this may be, we cannot legislate, or alter the law.

It is therefore our opinion that the Sessions, in ordering the warrant of distress to issue, erred, and that their proceedings cannot be affirmed.

The next question is, whether we can quash the proceedings so far as they relate to the order of payment, and confirm them as to the residue; or whether we must quash the whole.

It is admitted that on certiorari we can enter ho new judgment, as we can on error; but the respondents insist that in this case the whole of the proceedings must be quashed.

In the case of the Commonwealth in certiorari vs. Carpenter

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Bluebook (online)
5 Mass. 420, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-blue-hill-turnpike-corp-mass-1809.