Opinion

South Essex Sewerage Board v. Carr Leather Co.

  • 286 Mass. 191
  • 189 N.E. 802
  • 1934 Mass. LEXIS 990
Court
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Filed
Mar 29, 1934
Status
Published
Author
Lummus
On the bench
Lummus
Cited by
1 cases
Authority
More cited than 47.7%

The opinion

Lummus, J.

St. 1925, c. 339, created the South Essex Sewerage District for the construction, maintenance and operation of sewers in certain cities and towns in Essex County. The management of the district was entrusted to the plaintiff, which, by § 14, was authorized to “make regulations as to the character of any sewage, drainage or other wastes discharged into any sewer under its control.” The plaintiff made a regulation forbidding the discharge of caustic lime into any sewer. The regulation purported *192 to give jurisdiction to the Superior Court in equity to enforce that regulation by injunction, but of course it could not do so. The present bills were begun in the Superior Court to restrain the violation of the regulation. Pleas to the jurisdiction were sustained, and the cases were reported.

In cases in equity not “cognizable under the general principles of equity jurisprudence,” the Superior Court, as distinguished from this court, has jurisdiction only when a statute expressly confers it: G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 214, § 2. Baldwin v. Wilbraham, 140 Mass. 459 . Barker v. Mackay, 168 Mass. 76 . The plaintiff argues that the Superior Court has jurisdiction under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 83, §§ 10, 13. But those sections apply only to regulations made by officers of a city or town. See Cohen v. Price, 273 Mass. 303 . We are referred to no statute giving jurisdiction to the Superior Court to enforce in equity the regulation in question. The statute creating the plaintiff, St. 1925, c. 339, merely provides, in § 20, that “The supreme judicial court shall have jurisdiction in equity to enforce the provisions of this act.”

Decrees sustaining pleas affirmed.

Bills dismissed.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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