State ex rel. Smith v. Town of Somerset

The relators appeal from an order quashing an alternative writ of mandamus. The question involved is whether, upon the facts stated in the petition of the relators, the board of supervisors of the town should have been compelled by mandamus to construct a bridge across Straight river, at a point where a public highway crosses the river, a bridge previously erected there having been carried away by an ice gorge in the spring of 1888, so as to render the highway at this place impassable. The court below considered that it was entirely within the discretion of the board of supervisors to…