Winslow v. Gifford
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
This was an action of trespass for entering the plaintiff’s close in Westport, tried before Hoar, J., in the court of common pleas.
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This was an action of trespass for entering the plaintiff’s close in Westport, tried before Hoar, J., in the court of common pleas. It was in evidence, for the plaintiff, that the defendants entered upon the plaintiff’s close, described in the writ, for the purpose of surveying and ascertaining the bounds of a public landing-place in Westport, having been forbidden so to enter by the plaintiff, and that they did no damage except to pass over the land for the purpose of running a line. The legislature, by an act passed on the 21st of April, 1848, (St. 1848, c. 171,) for the regulation of the…
1Opinion of the CourtDewey, J.
The entry of the defendants is justified under the authority alleged to have been conferred upon them by virtue of the statute of 1848, c. 171, entitled “ An act for the regulation of public and town landings in the town of West-port.”
If this act is constitutional, and if it confers the power to enter upon the land of individuals to make surveys and establish boundaries, then the defence is maintained; inasmuch as there was no unnecessary damage done in making such entry, and the jury have found that this was a suitable and appropriate mode of effecting the object authorized by the statute.
The…
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