181 Mass. 432 | Mass. | 1902
This is a petition for a writ of certiorari to quash assessments for street watering in front of three tracts of the petitioner’s land. The assessment was by the front foot under St. 1897, c. 419, § 2. The petition alleges facts which make it seem unlikely that the two lots on Beacon Street, which alone are in question before us, could have received any benefit, or at least a benefit equal to the amount of the tax, and the record proper discloses no preliminary adjudication by the board that there was such a benefit. The return or answer alleges, however, that the assessment was much less than the cost and less than the benefit conferred, and, what is more important, that the board based their determination upon these facts. The answer also sets forth various facts intended to corroborate the conclusion of the board, and the allegations are traversed and replied to by the petitioner. When the case came on for hearing, the petitioner desired to go into evidence upon these matters and excepted to a ruling which excluded it.
Both parties seem in their pleadings to have lost sight of the scope of certiorari as explained in Farmington River Water
In the case at bar, the allegation in the answer that the re
The return appended a map of the premises assessed, and it appeared from inspection that one of the petitioner’s lots had a front of three hundred and ninety feet and a depth varying from fifteen feet to eighteen inches. The single justice thought it manifest .that the assessment on this lot could not be valid under Sears v. Boston, 173 Mass. 71, 79, 80, and Weed v. Boston, 172 Mass. 28, 32. With that we have nothing to do. But he rightly held that there was nothing before him to show that the other assessments were bad, as matter of law, under those decisions, or in minor points under St. 1897, c. 419, §§ 2, 3. See further French v. Barber Asphalt Paving Co. 181 U. S. 324, and following cases, through p. 404. The only question before us, however, is whether the exclusion of evidence in support of the petition and traverse was proper. For the reasons which we have given, we are of opinion that it was right.
Exceptions overruled.