Manual for the use of boards of health of Massachusetts : containing the statutes relating to the public health, the medical examiner laws, the laws relating to the registration of vital statistics, and the decisions of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts relating to the same / prepared by direction of the State Board of Health.

  • Massachusetts
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Manual for the use of boards of health of Massachusetts : containing the statutes relating to the public health, the medical examiner laws, the laws relating to the registration of vital statistics, and the decisions of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts relating to the same / prepared by direction of the State Board of Health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    The owner of swamp-land conveyed to a reservoir company [author- ized by its charter to store water, and to drain off the same in such manner as it should deem best, and for this purpose to acquire laud by purchase or otherwise] the right of flowing or raising the waters of a pond over his land by a deed containing full covenants of seisin and warranty. Held, that the deed conveyed an easement in the land, and was not a release of damages for flowing the land; and that the reservoir company might maintain a bill in equity against the owner of the land to restrain him from Ailing the same. Watuppa Reservoir Company v. Colin McKenzie, 132 Mass. 71. A petition to the board of health of a city described a nuisance as owing to large quantities of stagnant water standing in an open drain between two streets of the city. The board of health issued a notice that it was acting under the Pub. Stats., chap. 80, sects. 30, 31 and 32 (Statute of 1868, chap. 160), and abated the nuisance. On a petition for a writ of certiorari to quash the proceedings of the board of health, it did not appear whether the drain was a public or private one, nor for what purpose it was made; and it appeared to be a watercourse. Held, that it could not be said that the nuisance was not such as could be abated under the Pub. Stats., chap. 80, sects. 30, 31 and 32 (Statute of 1868, chap. 160), and that it was too late to take this objection. Grace v. Newton Board of Health, 135 Mass. 490. On a petition for a writ of certiorari to quash the proceedings of the board of health of a city, assessing the expense of abating a nuisance under the Pub. Stats.,chap. 80, sect. 32 (Statute of 1868, chap. 160), the record showed a petition addressed to the board of health, which com- plained of large quantities of stagnant water standing in an open drain between two streets, from which arose such unhealthy odors as to cause great sickness in the neighborhood, and prayed for a hearing; a reference of the same to the next city government; a vote of the board of health, the next year, to view the premises; a view taken; an order that the city engineer, under direction of a committee, be directed to widen, straighten and deepen a watercourse between the two streets, and that the clerk be instructed to notify abutters on the watercourse of a hearing on a certain day, under the Pub. Stats., chap. 80, sect. 30 (Statutes of 1868, chap. 160); a warrant issued by the clerk to a constable io notify abutters of the intention of the board of health to enter upon the premises for the purpose of widening, deepening and straightening the brook, and that a hearing would be given, at a time and place named, to all parties interested in the matter, as to the necessity and mode of abating the nuisance caused by the brook, and the question of damages, and of the assessment and apportionment of the expenses thereof; and a notice setting forth these things, and stating that it was in accordance with the Pub. Stats., chap. 80, sect. 32 (Statute of 1868, chap. 160). Held, that it sufficiently appeared that the board was attempting to act under this statute. Held, also, that the petition was sufficient to give the board jurisdiction. Grace v. Newton Board of Health, 135 Mass. 490.