206 Mass. 380 | Mass. | 1910
The town of Revere enacted a by-law which provided “ that assessors shall keep a record of all abatements of taxes, the names of the parties taxed, and the reasons for and amounts of abatements. And they shall annually make a report of the valuation real and personal and total the rate of taxation, the amount of money raised, and amount of money received as taxes from other sources than taxation by the town, with a full report of all abatements, with the amounts of the abatement, the names of the persons benefited, and the reasons therefor, and they shall at least once in two years, cause to -be
The first contention of the respondents is, that the petitioners are not individually entitled to relief, as any rights which they may have as citizens are held and enjoyed in common with the general public, whose officers alone can enforce the remedy. But if in the performance of their official duties the respondents were subject to the by-law, the petitioners, as inhabitants and taxpayers of the town, may compel its enforcement by mandamus, even if upon their request the selectmen refused to act and the Attorney General after hearing the relators declined to intervene. Brewster v. Sherman, 195 Mass. 222, 224. Weld v. Gas & Electric Light Commissioners, 197 Mass. 556, 557. Compare Fowler v. Brooks, 188 Mass. 64.
It is further contended that, the town having been without authority to enact the by-law, the respondents were under no obligation to comply with its provisions. If towns ordinarily derive their corporate existence by the will of the Legislature, yet in the early settlement of the State they came into existence without having been created by royal charter or by legislative act. The General Court, however, from time to time has conferred upon them authority to regulate and manage their internal affairs, and for this purpose the corporate power of towns to adopt reasonable by-laws not repugnant to law has been recognized and sanctioned from early colonial times. 1 Mass. Col. Rec. 172. 11 Plym. Col. Rec. 32,110,192. 1 Prov. Laws, 1692-93, c. 28, §§ 3,5. By long usage and independently of statutory provisions, ancient customs in many instances ripened into regulations, which have been upheld when expressed by a vote of the town if not opposed to the general laws. The subject is quite fully discussed by Chief Justice Shaw in Willard v. Newburyport, 12 Pick. 227, and in Spaulding v. Lowell, 23 Pick. 71, 77, and by Chief Justice Gray in Lynn v. Nahant, 113 Mass. 433. The St. of 1785, c. 75, § 7, which repealed previous enactments, empowered towns “ to make and agree upon such necessary rules,
While entitled in its municipal capacity to all the privileges and benefits of local self-government so far as conferred by the general laws, yet, the town not having been granted authority to impose upon the assessors the performance of additional and extrinsic duties, the respondents, in the opinion of a majority of the court, are not shown to have been guilty of official misconduct in refusing to obey the requirements of an invalid by-law. See Commonwealth v. Turner, 1 Cush. 493; Commonwealth v. Patch, 97 Mass. 221, 222; Commonwealth v. Wilkins, 121 Mass. 356, 357; Commonwealth v. Allen, 128 Mass. 308; Walker v. Cook, 129 Mass. 577; Newton v. Belger, 143 Mass. 598; Clinton v. Welch, 166 Mass. 133.
Petition dismissed.