Bradbury v. Inhabitants of Cumberland County
Bradbury v. Inhabitants of Cumberland County
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was drawn by
This action is debt, upon a judgment alleged to have been rendered by the court of county commissioners of the county of Cumberland, at its session, in June, 1853, for the amount of damages sustained by the plaintiff, by reason of a certain highway therein described, having been located and made over a portion of his land.
In the year 1851, Alvin Leavitt and others filed a petition in the court of county commissioners for the county of Cumberland, praying for the location of a highway over a route described, parts of which were in the several counties of Cumberland, Kennebec, Oxford and Franklin. After proceedings, which are not in controversy, a majority of all the commissioners of the counties, just named, each of them being represented by a majority of its own commissioners, at a meeting held by them, adjudged and determined that common convenience and necessity required that the prayer of the petition' be granted in part. And afterward the portion of said highway which lay in the county of Cumberland,. was legally laid out, and damages awarded to the several owners of the land over which the highway was laid out. The damages so awarded being unsatisfactory to the
In the case of Jones v. Oxford County, 45 Maine, 419, a matter, in the county of Androscoggin, arising under the same petition of Alvin Leavitt and others, it was held by this Court, that the supposed discontinuance by the joint board of county commissioners of the four counties, on the ground that the damages awarded by the committee was excessive, was unauthorized and void.
This decision, being upon action of the joint board, under the petition of Alvin Leavitt and others, is conclusive in this case.
It may be proper to notice, that the case referred to was an action of debt, upon a judgment alleged to have been rendered by the court of county commissioners for the county of Oxford. It is averred in the first count in the writ, in that action, that the committee agreed upon and duly appointed, to act upon the petition for an increase of damages, made and duly returned to said commissioners, reports of their doings, &c., at the regular term of the court of county commissioners for the county.of Oxford, held in Sept., 1853, and that said report, and award of damages, in favor of the plaintiff, was accepted by said commissioners and duly recorded; and the proceedings on said original petition of Alvin Leavitt and others were closed and the record of the proceedings on said original petition completed. And it was agreed, by the parties to that action, that all the facts stated in the first count of the plaintiff’s declaration were true, with a qualification, not material to the present inquiry.
In the case at bar, no agreement of that character was made by the parties ; and the allegation in the writ, that, at the regular term of the court of county commissioners for the county of Cumberland, held in June, 1853, "said report
The proceedings, under the petition of Alvin Leavitt and others, appear by the records not to have been completed, on April 20, 1854, when it was ordered, by the court of county commissioners for the county of Cumberland, that all processes pending befoi’e that court, which Avould have lfalen within the jurisdiction of the county of Axidroscoggixx, if it had been established, where said processes originated, be, and the same are hereby transferred to said county of Androspoggin, &c.
Whether the proceedings iix the case, on the petition of Alvin Leavitt and others, can ixoav be completed or xxot; and if they can be completed, whether by the court of coxxnty commissioixers in the county of Cumberland, or of Androscoggin; and by xvhat process such court may be required to complete the proceedings, if at all, are questions which are xxot noxv before this Court.
Accordiixg to the agreement of the parties, the plaintiff must become Nonsuit.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Samuel G. Bradbury versus Inhabitants of Cumberland County
- Status
- Published