Pratt v. Building Inspector of Gloucester

This petition for a writ of mandamus is brought by two owners of residential property in Gloucester to compel the building inspector to perform his duty to enforce the city’s zoning ordinance by causing the intervener, one Milne, to cease maintaining a stable on his land which adjoins the residence of one of the petitioners and is near that of the other. Sunderland v. Building Inspector of North Andover, 328 Mass. 638. The trial judge dismissed the petition.

Section 3 of the ordinance lists the uses of property permitted in a “Single Residence District.” The first use listed is “a. One-family…