193 Mass. 305 | Mass. | 1906
This is a bill in equity brought to restrain the defendant from maintaining poles and wires in one of the streets of the city of Taunton, and to compel the removal of the poles and wires which have been erected there by the defendant. The principal question in the case relates to the construction of the St. 1901, c. 214, § 3. This statute is entitled “ An Act to extend the corporate powers of the Brockton Street Railway Company.” By c. 434 of the acts of the same year, the name of this corporation is changed to Old Colony Street Railway Company, so that the defendant is the corporation mentioned in the earlier statute. The language in question is as follows: “ Said company may, for all purposes necessary or incident to the construction, maintenance and operation of an electric street railway, generate, manufacture, use and transmit electricity in any city or town wherein it is now or may hereafter be entitled to operate a street railway, and for that purpose may erect and maintain poles, trolley, feed and stay wires and other devices for conducting electricity in, over and under any streets, highways, bridges and town ways in any of said cities and towns wherein it has been or may hereafter be authorized by the board of aldermen or selectmen to operate its railway, and upon and over any private land, with the consent of the owners thereof,” etc. The street to which the suit refers is not one in which the defendant is authorized by the board of aldermen to operate its railway, although authority was given by the board to erect and maintain the wires for the transmission of electricity through it.
The plaintiff contends that the word “ wherein ” in the clause “ wherein it has been or may hereafter be authorized by the board of aldermen or selectmen to operate its railway,” relates, to “ streets, highways, bridges and town ways ”; while the defendant contends that it relates to the words “ in any of said cities and towns.” It is a general rule that a limiting or qualifying word or clause must be confined to the last antecedent,
The principal argument against the defendant’s construction is that the Legislature could not have intended to give the corporation so much power. In answer to this it is shown that, in the same year, by the Sts. 1901, cc. 280, 305, 316, 317, 318 and 348, authority of this kind was given to six other corporations in the same language as in the statute before us, except that the words “ in any city or town wherein ” are used instead of the words “ any of said cities or towns wherein.” In these statutes
It is unnecessary to consider whether the plaintiff has such an interest in the land under the street as would give her a standing in this suit if her construction of the statute were adopted.
Bill dismissed.