188 Mass. 59 | Mass. | 1905
The question in this case is whether the petitioner owned “an established business on land” within the meaning of St. 1895, c. 488, § 14. So much of the section as is material is as follows: “ In case any individual or firm owning on the first day of April in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five an established business on land in the town of West Boylston, whether the same shall be taken or not under this act, . . . shall deem that such business is decreased in value by the carrying out of this act, whether by loss of custom or otherwise, and unable to agree with said board as to the amount of damages to be paid for such injury, such damages shall be determined” etc.
The petitioner owned on April 1, 1895, and had owned for a good many years, a small farm in West Boylston, consisting, it is said, of about fifty acres, which he carried on, and on which he lived and supported himself and family. He had no other business. He raised hay, grain, apples and vegetables but not in large quantities, and kept a cow, a horse, some hens, and a few hogs and made each year a few barrels of cider from apples raised on the farm. The hay that was not consumed, and the eggs, vegetables, cider and milk that were not required for the support of the family were sold in the village of Oakdale in West Boylston, and he occasionally sold a hog to the local butcher. He had no regular route or customers for the sale of the hay, eggs, vegetables, milk and cider. It does not appear, and is perhaps not material, of how many persons his family consisted, nor how much hay and other produce or how many eggs and hogs he sold. The village of Oakdale was destroyed by the construction of the reservoir, and the petitioner brings this petition to recover the damages thereby caused to his business.
The act under which the petition is brought is entitled, “ An Act to provide for a Metropolitan Water Supply,” and provides for the construction of a reservoir, the effect of which will be to submerge certain towns and villages and to destroy a large
The word “ business ” is of large significance and “ denotes the employment or occupation in which a person is engaged to procure a living.” Goddard v. Chaffee, 2 Allen, 395. That farming is a business is plain, (Snow v. Sheldon, 126 Mass. 332,) and there is nothing in the statute that excludes it any more than any other business from its operation. It is manifest, also, we think, that the petitioner was engaged in the business of farming. That was the means, and, so far as appears, the only means whereby he procured a livelihood for himself and his family. The more difficult question is whether, as he carried it on, it was “ an established business ” within the meaning of the statute. That it was a business “on land in the town of West Boylston ” would seem to hardly admit of question. In this connection it is to be noted that the business of farming as canned on by the petitioner included not only the raising of farm prod
iSo ordered.