280 Mass. 76 | Mass. | 1932
This is a bill in equity wherein the plaintiff seeks to enjoin the defendants.’from maintaining a slaughter house at 295 Revére Street, Revere, or from carrying on the trade or business of keeping, slaughtering and selling of fowl until the further order of the court.
At the trial in the Superior Court the parties submitted the case on a “Statement of Agreed Facts.” These facts summarized in substance are as follows: On August 6, 1931, the defendant Max Riceman had a license to conduct a slaughter house at 295 Revere Street, Revere. This license was originally granted and became operative in 1910 and continued to be exercised thereafter for more than twenty years. By the terms of the license Riceman was allowed to keep, slaughter and sell fowl at 295 Revere Street, Revere. On March 16, 1931, the owner of the premises, the defendant Safferson, received notice from the building inspector of the city of Revere to the effect that the building at 295 Revere Street being used for a slaughter house “is in an unsanitary and deplorable condition and is also condemned.” On May 29, 1931, the board of health of the
At the trial in the Superior Court there were sixty-four requests for rulings by the defendants. Of these the judge granted twelve and denied fifty-one. As to request twelve he denied so much as stated “. . . that the nuisance, if it existed, was abated by the erection of the new building,” and granted the rest.
In his decision, which is made a part of the record, the judge ruled rightly that, under G. L. c. Ill, § 151, the board of health was without power in 1931 to grant “consent and permission” to Riceman “to build a new building, with certain provisos the terms of which were apparently fulfilled,” because Revere at that time was a city and not a “town having a population of more than five thousand.”
The final decree ordered (1) “That the bill be dismissed as against the Massachusetts Live Poultry Company, without costs”; (2) “That the defendant Max Riceman be and hereby is permanently enjoined from using and maintaining the premises numbered 295 Revere Street, Revere, as a place for the exercise of the trade or employment of keeping and slaughtering live fowl”; and (3) “That the defendant Celia Safferson be and hereby is permanently enjoined from permitting the use and maintenance by any person or corporation of the said premises as a place for the exercise of the trade or employment of keeping and slaughtering live fowl.” The defendants appealed from-the final decree.
The defendants contend (1) “that the board of health of the city of Revere, could not revoke, through its order of prohibition, a vested property right”; (2) that “The source of the defendants’ original authorization to do business, and the subsequent actions of the board of health in the city of Revere, indicate that their authority sprang from R. L. c. 75, § 108, and its successor, G. L. c. Ill, § 151”; and (3) that “The board of health of the city of Revere was
The first position is manifestly unsound. Under G. L. c. Ill, § 143, the board of health had authority to grant certain places for the exercise of any trade or employment which is a nuisance or hurtful to the inhabitants and may prohibit the exercise thereof within the limits of the town or in places not so assigned. It is plain that the acts done by the board of health are within its jurisdiction; that the only method of review is by the appeal provided by said § 147; and that this right of appeal was availed of by the. defendants and subsequently abandoned “without prejudice.”
The principal argument of the defendants for the reversal of the final decree rests upon their contention that the board of health had no right to revoke a license granted under R. L. c. 75, § 108, now G. L. c. Ill, § 151. Because Revere is a city and not a town this may be conceded, but the board of health of both city and town, by the provisions of R. L. c. 75, § 91, now G. L. c. Ill, § 143, has express authority to revoke a permit to exercise in a particular place, building or otherwise, a trade or employment such as is described in G. L. c. Ill, § 143. Cambridge v. Trelegan, 181 Mass. 565. It is manifest that an assignment of a place to exercise a trade or employment such as is described in R. L. c. 75, § 91, (G. L. c. 111, § 143,) does not create a vested right in the donee of the privilege granted, and that a revocation of such a privilege does not deprive such a person of any constitutional rights. A donee of a privilege to exercise a trade or employment of the character described in R. L. c. 75, § 91, (G. L. c. Ill, § 143,) may rightfully be deprived of the enjoyment of such a privilege whenever in the opinion of the board of health the continuance of such a trade or employment has become hurtful to the inhabitants, injurious to their estates, dangerous to the public health or is attended by noisome and injurious
We find no reversible error in the refusal to give the requested rulings.
Decree affirmed with costs.
The town of Revere became a city under the provisions of St. 1914, c. 687, which, in accordance with § 52, were accepted at the State election in November, 1914.