37 A. 706 | R.I. | 1897
We are of the opinion that a new trial should be granted. The instruction of the court to the jury excepted to, that "the failure of the town council to adjudge it to be necessary to widen said highway, at the time of the appointment of said committee to widen, is a fatal defect, and renders the proceedings to lay out said highway void," should not have been given to the jury. Its effect was to deprive the defendant of theprima facie justification for his entry on the plaintiff's close which the decree of the town council for the lay-out afforded. This action being a collateral proceeding, the decree of the town council was prima facie sufficient. Gen. Laws R.I. cap. 248, § 7, provides: "No order or decree of a court of probate or town council, which may be appealed from, or in any collateral proceeding when the same shall not have been appealed from, shall be deemed to be invalid, or be quashed, for want of proper form, or for want of jurisdiction appearing upon the face of the papers, if the court or council had jurisdiction of the subject-matter of such order or decree." In Angell v. Angell,