Dunham v. City of Boston
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Bill in equity to enforce specific performance of a contract to convey to the plaintiff a tract of land in South Boston, called the burial-ground lot. The answer denied the making of any such contract.
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Bill in equity to enforce specific performance of a contract to convey to the plaintiff a tract of land in South Boston, called the burial-ground lot. The answer denied the making of any such contract. At the hearing in this court, before Chapman, J., it appeared that in October 1858, by concurrent vote of both branches of the city council of Boston the board of land commissioners were authorized to sell the lot upon the same terms and with the same limitations as they were by ordinance then authorized to sell the public lands. By the city ordinance then in force (see City Ordinances of…
1Opinion of the CourtChapman, J.
The court are of opinion that the evidence does not prove that the defendants contracted with the plaintiff for the sale of the land to him. The vote passed on the 11th of August does not import a contract, even when approved by the mayor. It was not communicated to the plaintiff as a contract, and it does not appear that it was intended to be so. On the contrary, it was to be communicated to the proper officers of the city as an authority to them to execute a deed, and it contemplates the deed as the only contract which the city was to make with the plaintiff. It was thus a mere preliminary…
2Cited by2 opinions
- Mann v. Town of RochesterIndiana Court of Appeals · 1902
- State v. HowellSuperior Court of Delaware · 1912