328 Mass. 468 | Mass. | 1952
This is an appeal from a judgment entered upon a petition for a writ of mandamus ordering the respondents as the board of public welfare of the town of Wilmington to render aid to the dependent children of a certain resident
Upon the failure of the respondents to grant her relief upon her application filed with them on April 7, 1950, she appealed to the department of public welfare under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 118, § 8, as appearing in St. 1939, c. 248. Section 8, so far as material, provides that a person appealing shall be given a fair hearing which “shall be conducted by a referee designated by the commissioner. . . . The decision of the referee, when approved by the commissioner, shall be the decision of the department and shall be final and binding upon the local board of public welfare involved and shall be complied with by such local board.”
The respondents, notwithstanding the plain terms of the statute making the decision of the department of public welfare final and binding upon them and requiring compliance by them, were permitted without any objection to contend and to introduce evidence
The respondents next contend that the judge was in error in excluding evidence tending to show that a previous application by the same applicant was withdrawn by her on April 7, 1949, because of fraud in reference to her application, that she was barred by the statute from filing another application within a year, and that the department had no power to entertain the application which was filed on April 7, 1950, and which resulted in the order now sought to be enforced. The statute, G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 118, § 10, as appearing in St. 1936, c. 413, § 1, so far as pertinent, provides that “No applicant for aid hereunder who knowingly makes any false statement, or seeks to perpetrate any fraud or deception, in or relative to his application for such aid, shall be granted any aid hereunder upon such application, nor shall he be eligible for one year thereafter to make further application for such aid or to receive the same.” On objection that that was a matter that should be raised by a petition for a writ of certiorari, the evidence was excluded. The ruling was .right.
There was no error in the refusal of the judge to deny the writ as a matter of discretion on the ground that the applicant since the hearing on appeal has been receiving $5 a week from a new source of income which she attempted to conceal from the respondents and that the latter upon the discovery of this fact have requested the department to reopen the case. Attorney General v. Bureau of Old Age Assistance of Cambridge, 324 Mass. 63.
Judgment affirmed.
Certiorari is commonly the only remedy available to one who has been manifestly injured by a substantial error of law contained in a decision of a board acting in a quasi judicial capacity, whose decisions are by statute made final and binding on the parties. Opinion of the Justices, 251 Mass. 569, 61A-615. Hough v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Board, 309 Mass. 534, 535. Opinion of the Justices, 321 Mass. 759, 765.