Haverhill Bridge Proprietors v. County Commissioners of Essex
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Petition for a writ of certiorari to quash proceedings of the respondents in laying out the petitioners’ bridge as a highway, under the St. of 1868, c. 309, § 8, which became a law June 5, 1868, and provided that “ the county commissioners of the county of Essex” should, within sixty days thereafter, “lay out as and for highways” certain bridges over the Merrimack River, including “ Haverhill Bridge, between the towns of Haverhill and Bradford,” “ in the manner now provided…
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Petition for a writ of certiorari to quash proceedings of the respondents in laying out the petitioners’ bridge as a highway, under the St. of 1868, c. 309, § 8, which became a law June 5, 1868, and provided that “ the county commissioners of the county of Essex” should, within sixty days thereafter, “lay out as and for highways” certain bridges over the Merrimack River, including “ Haverhill Bridge, between the towns of Haverhill and Bradford,” “ in the manner now provided by law for the laying out of highways, and according to the provisions of” the St. of 1867, c. 296, “ so far as the same…
1Opinion of the Court
Colt, J.*
The St. of 1868, c. 309, imperatively requires the county commissioners to appropriate the property and franchise of the petitioners to the public use by laying their toll bridge out as a highway. It is objected that its provisions violate the Constitution of the Commonwealth. The court are of opinion *124that, under this statute, construed according to the manifest intent of the legislature, the power existing in the supreme authority of the state, to take private property for the public use, may be lawfully exercised.
It belongs to the legislature to determine, in view of the general…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Moody v. CommonwealthCourt of Appeals of Kentucky · 1862
3Cited by33 opinions
- Sweet v. RechelSupreme Court of the United States · 1895
- Farmington River Water Power Co. v. County CommissionersMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1873
- Inhabitants of Worcester County v. Mayor of WorcesterMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1874
- KingmanMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1891
- Drury v. Midland RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1879
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