85 N.J. Eq. 161 | N.J. | 1915
We should think it unnecessary to add to what the chancellor said but for some suggestions in the brief in this court of counsel for the appellant, which seem to deserve remark.
1. We agree with the chancellor that the object expressed in the title of tire act of 1900 is the prevention of pollution of the state’s waters and that establishment of a state sewerage commission is only one of the means by which that object is to be accomplished. The title differs entirely from the one suggested by counsel, “An act for the establishment of a state sewerage commission to prevent the pollution of the waters of this state,” &c. It is true that the words of the title of 1900, “by the establishment of a state sewerage commission,” might be read as words limiting the scope of the act. Whether words are to have that effect in any particular case depends on the legislative intent. That such was not the intent in the present case is shown by the words that follow in the title. It can hardly be that the legislature meant to limit the prevention of pollution to the cases where the creation of sewerage districts was authorized, and where the powers and duties of the commission and the boards were prescribed, defined and regulated. It would be going far to treat each clause as a limitation; yet the grammatical structure of the three clauses, and the connection of each with the words “to prevent tire pollution of the waters of this state,” is the same. “Authorizing the creation of sewerage districts,” “prescribing, defining and regulating the powers and duties,” are connected with what precedes by the same particle “by” that connects the words “the establishment of a state sewerage commission.” All three clauses were alike meant to show by the title certain means by which the object of the act was to be accomplished—an amplification rather than a limitation.
The contention of the appellant is that the object of the act cannot be accomplished by another agency than a state sewerage commission, and that the state board of health is a different agency which cannot be called a state sewerage commission.
2. Under the act of 1900 (Comp. Stat. p. 5818 pl. 86) the commission was authorized to act if they found that waters of the state' were being polluted to the injury of any of the inhabitants of this state either in their health, comfort or property. The chancellor found that the citizens of Trenton were suffering injury in their health, comfort and property, in that they were compelled to expend large sums of money to purify the waters of the Delawaxe for potable purposes. This finding was not vitiated by his remark at the end of the opinion that if the Delaware,- at Trenton, was not polluted by the sewage of Phillipsburg in such manner as to cause injury to the inhabitants'of Trenton, such injury was threatened and the case was therefore within the terms of the act of 1907. This remark was by way of indicating the equitable character of his result, and not an abandonment of his previous finding, which brought the case within the terms, of the act of 1900. The first finding was warranted by the evidence.
The decree is affirmed. Costs should follow the decree. The defendants, instead of complying with the notice served in 1906, chose to litigate. We see no reason for making a distinction between a municipal corporation and an individual.