254 Mass. 232 | Mass. | 1926
This is an action of contract to recover the amount required to be paid by the defendant to the plaintiff as specified by St. 1924, c. 443, § 3, which amount is that levied by an assessment by the Legislature itself. It arose in this way: By St. 1916, c. 286, now G. L. c. Ill, §§ 78-91, the county of Essex, in common with many other counties, was required to provide adequate hospital care for all persons suffering from consumption, in need of hospital treatment, residing in cities and towns of less than fifty thousand inhabitants, with alternative provisions not here material. The expense of any hospital built to afford this care was to be assessed upon such cities and towns. Pursuant to that statute, the county of Essex built at Middleton an elaborate hospital for tuberculosis patients, at an expense of $1,569,287.01. By Spec. St. 1917, c. 107, the defendant, although having less than fifty thousand inhabitants, was exempted from liability to assessment for such hospital. That exemption was enacted on petition of the mayor and other citizens of Newburyport setting out that a ward for persons affected with tuberculosis was being constructed in connection with the Anna Jaques Hospital, a charitable institution of that city, which would accommodate residents of Newburyport needing such treatment. Such ward was in fact constructed and residents of Newburyport needing
By St. 1924, c. 443, it was provided in § 1, that all the cities and towns of Essex County should constitute the Essex County tuberculosis hospital district and be subject to all the provisions of the general law as to care of persons suffering from tuberculosis. The cost of maintenance, operation and repair of the county tuberculosis hospital was to be assessed upon all the cities and towns of the county in accordance with their valuations. The exemption theretofore enjoyed by Lynn, Lawrence, Haverhill, Salem and Newburyport was expressly repealed by § 2. The precise assessment to be levied upon those five cities was specified in § 3. The option was offered to each of these cities by § 4, either to transfer title to property owned and used by it for tuberculosis purposes to the district at a valuation to be ascertained as there provided, or to retain such property for sale or use for other municipal purposes. It was provided by § 6 that the assessments levied upon the five cities by § 3 should be distributed among the cities and towns theretofore constituting the district in the same proportion as such cities and towns were originally required to contribute to the cost of the county or district hospital, to be applied by them in payment of debts incurred for the hospital or of assessment levied on account thereof. The provisions of §§ 5, 7, and 8 have no relevancy to any question argued. The result of this statute is that all the cities and towns of Essex County now constitute a single district for the treatment of tuberculosis, and all their inhabitants so far as needing hospital treatment under the requirements of law may receive it at
The effect of St. 1924, c. 443, is to consolidate all cities and towns in the county of Essex into one district, and to equalize the cost of the district hospital so that when the assessments made by § 3 are paid and distributed as provided by § 6, each city and town will have borne its share of the cost in such proportion as the Legislature has adjudged by its statutes to be reasonable.
The case was heard by a judge of the Superior Court upon two issues: (1) Whether a written contract had been entered into between the defendant and the Anna Jaques Hospital relative to the care of tuberculosis patients; and (2) Whether St. 1924, c. 443, was constitutional so far as it required the defendant to pay a part of the cost of the county hospital. Evidence was submitted on the first issue and important facts were submitted by an agreed statement.
1. The judge rightly ruled as matter of law that the evidence was not sufficient to establish a valid binding contract between the defendant and the Anna Jaques Hospital. The city council of the defendant in 1916 adopted an order authorizing the mayor to make a contract in the name of the city with the Anna Jaques Hospital upon the completion of a suitable ward for patients suffering from tuberculosis “to place in said hospital the city’s patients suffering from tuberculosis, the expense to the city for the care of such patients not to exceed by more than $5.00 per week per patient, the subsidy paid to the city for each patient by the Commonwealth under Chapter 597 of the Acts of 1911 and its amendments.” The city auditor of the defendant testified that an agreement, consisting of seven or eight pages, between the hospital and the city was signed by the mayor, but he saw no other signature on it. He could not tell with certainty the price to be paid for patients, though his impression was that it was $12 per week. No contract is on file either with the city or the hospital. The mayor of 1916 testified that he signed a contract and that a Mr. Moseley signed it but he could not remember the terms of the contract or the price to be paid for the patients or anything further about it
2. The constitutionality of St. 1924, c. 443, § 3, is assailed. The object of that statute in general is the preservation of the public health. It is designed to aid in the prevention and cure of a disease now commonly accounted one of the scourges of mankind. No argument is required to demonstrate that the establishment of the hospital for the specified cities and towns of Essex County under St. 1916, c. 286, was a public purpose for the construction and maintenance of which taxes may be levied. The hospital stands on as firm footing in this respect as do schools, roads, bridges, and other confessedly governmental functions. The Legislature is clothed with broad powers and heavy responsibilities as to the distribution of the burdens of taxation for the support of such instrumentalities for the general welfare. Ordinarily the finality of a legislative apportionment of taxation for support of these public institutions among several cities and towns would not be questioned. The power of the General Court to create and change, consolidate and divide districts for taxation purposes is plenary. Doubtless it would transcend constitutional bounds to tax the people of one territorial subdivision of the Commonwealth for the benefit of the people of another remote territorial district. But it is not essential to a valid scheme of taxation that all the people benefit from it in precisely the same degree. No tax system has been devised whereby a perfect equalization of its burdens or an exact distribution of the benefits of expenditure of money raised by taxation can be accomplished. The Legislature in its wisdom may change county or town lines and provide for the sharing and adjustment of their respec
The original unit established in the northeastern part of the Commonwealth for the administration of justice, the support of jails and houses of correction, and the registration of deeds and the transaction of other kindred public affairs was the county of Essex. When the Legislature came to deal with the problem of proper provision for patients suffering from tuberculosis in Essex County in 1916, four cities were omitted from the district required to contribute for the cost of the hospital. It seems plain that at that time the whole
We are unable to perceive anything arbitrary, despotic, or constituting a flagrant misuse of legislative power. Such characteristics would render legislation contrary to constitutional guaranties. But they do not exist in St. 1924, c. 443.
The case at bar is governed by the principle of numerous decisions: Scituate v. Weymouth, 108 Mass. 128. Agawam v. Hampden, 130 Mass. 528. Kingman, petitioner, 153 Mass. 566, 573, 580. Kingman, petitioner, 170 Mass. 111. Boston, petitioner, 221 Mass. 468. Duffy v. Treasurer & Receiver General, 234 Mass. 42. Opinion of Justices, 234 Mass. 612. Boston v. Treasurer & Receiver General, 237 Mass. 403. Worcester v. Worcester Consolidated Street Railway, 196 U. S. 539. Philip Wagner, Inc. v. Baltimore, 239 U. S. 207, 216. Trenton v. New Jersey, 262 U. S. 182. The amplitude and clearness of discussion in those decisions render further consideration at this time unnecessary.
The case at bar is distinguishable from Hampshire v. Franklin, 16 Mass. 76, of which it was said by Chief Justice Shaw in Norwich v. County Commissioners, 13 Pick. 60,
The defendant is not in a position to raise any question under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. None of its private property is taken or proposed to be taken by the statute. The defendant is simply required to collect by taxation and to pay public money for a public use. Chelsea v. Treasurer & Receiver General, 237 Mass. 422. The defendant is merely employed by the Legislature as an instrumentality of government to pay public money presumably raised directly or ultimately by taxation for a public use. Even if it be assumed, however, that that question is open to the defendant, there is no substance in' it. The reasons already stated and the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States hitherto cited seem to us to demonstrate that no taking of property without due process of law is made under this statute.
Judgment for the plaintiff on the finding.