68 A. 40 | N.H. | 1907
The demurrer raised the question whether upon the facts alleged in the bill the plaintiffs are entitled to equitable relief. They seek to have the order of the board of license commissioners cancelling their license declared to be null and void. Whether they have misconceived their remedy it is unnecessary to determine, since they have not stated a cause of action showing that they have suffered actionable wrong. If the action of the commissioners in cancelling their license was legal, it cannot be nullified in this, or in any other, form of procedure.
That the commissioners were exercising judicial functions in deciding that the plaintiffs had violated the provisions of the license law and that they were no longer entitled to exercise the privilege conferred upon them by their license, cannot be doubted. Sargent v. Little,
The principal ground of complaint on the part of the plaintiffs, is, that the commissioners were disqualified to act in a judicial capacity in the trial of the complaint against them, because they had, before the time of the hearing and in the absence of the plaintiffs, heard and considered evidence which was prejudicial to the plaintiffs. But however reprehensible such conduct on the part of the board may be in the performance of judicial duties (and upon this point no opinion is expressed), it did not necessarily *321 have the effect of rendering their proceedings absolutely void, so far as the plaintiffs are concerned. There is no allegation in the bill that they were ignorant, at the time of the hearing, of the facts which they now claim disqualified the members of the board from sitting in the case, or that they were not chargeable with knowledge thereof, or that they then objected to the tribunal on the ground of its disqualification for the reason suggested. In the absence of a statement of facts in the bill authorizing an inference that they were justifiably ignorant of the alleged incompetency of the board, it cannot be presumed that they were in that position at the trial. The only resulting conclusion is, that by their silence upon that point they were willing to submit the controversy to that tribunal, having jurisdiction of the subject-matter, and to waive the question of the bias or prejudice of its members produced by their having previously heard the statements of an interested witness, in the absence of both of the plaintiffs.
In State v. Daniels,
Exception overruled.
All concurred. *322