Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/331/331mass527.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 15:01:25+00:00

Document:
MASSACHUSETTS FEATHER COMPANY vs. ALDERMEN OF CHELSEA & another.
PETITION, filed in the Superior Court on April 1, 1952, for a writ of certiorari.
Alexander E. Finger, City Solicitor, for the respondents.
Joseph Gorfinkle, for the petitioner.
QUA, C.J. This is a petition for a writ of certiorari to quash action of the board of aldermen whereby the board purported to order the inspector of buildings to grant a permit to J. Shore and Co., Inc., for the extension and enclosing of a loading platform on its land between its building and the petitioner's building. In the Superior Court an order was entered for judgment in favor of the petitioner. The respondent aldermen appeal from the order.
Since there was no final judgment in the court below, the appeal is not here under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 213, Section 1D, inserted by St. 1943, c. 374, Section 4, but since it appears that the case was heard below solely on the pleadings and a paper which was in substance a return, as hereinafter appears, we deem the case to be properly here under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 231, Section 96. Hannigan v. Board of Appeals of Lowell, 328 Mass. 366, 367-368.
Procedure has been most irregular. Instead of filing a formal return the respondent aldermen filed a paper in the form of an answer, and all parties, including the aldermen, joined in a statement of facts setting forth fully the proceedings before the aldermen, the action taken by them and other facts necessary to an understanding of what took place. The case was heard in the Superior Court on that basis. All parties have taken part in this method of presenting the case. No one has objected. Defects of form have been waived. We think the statement of facts as agreed may be taken as in substance a return by the aldermen, and the case may be considered on that footing. Byfield v. Newton, 247 Mass. 46, 52-53. Wall v. Registrar of Motor Vehicles, 329 Mass. 70, 72.
party. Marcus v. Commissioner of Public Safety, 255 Mass. 5, 8. The joining of that company was an irregularity to which all parties have assented.
ordinance. There could not in reason or under the statute be two boards of appeal with jurisdiction over the same appeals. Moreover, the later rights of appeal were broader than the earlier ones. The former rights of appeal to the board of aldermen under the building ordinance were superseded by the later rights of appeal to the board of appeals.
Early in 1952 the inspector of buildings denied the application of the Shore company for a building permit for its platform. The reason for this denial is not material but may be assumed to have been, as subsequently stated by the inspector in a letter to the board of aldermen, because in his opinion the proposed building would not be in accord with the building ordinance. The remedy of the Shore company was by appeal to the board of appeals under the provisions of the zoning ordinance hereinbefore set forth. Instead, the company appealed to the board of aldermen purportedly under the former provisions of the building ordinance. After a hearing, the board of aldermen ordered the inspector of buildings to grant a permit to the Shore company. This action of the board of aldermen is the action which the petitioner seeks to quash. The inspector granted the permit in accordance with the order of the board of aldermen.
Fairman v. Board of Appeal of Melrose, ante, 160.
It is true in general, as the respondents argue, that zoning ordinances do not supersede building ordinances. Turner v. Board of Appeals of Milton, 305 Mass. 189. But in this instance rights of appeal to the board of appeals set up under the zoning ordinance have been expressly granted to "any person aggrieved" by a decision of the inspector under the building ordinance.
A motion to dismiss this appeal as moot on the ground that a new permit issued for a platform of different construction has been granted and acted upon is denied for the reason that accompanying affidavits show that the new construction does not fully take the place of that included in the original permit ordered by the board of aldermen and that the controversy is still a live one.
The order for judgment is reversed. Judgment is to be entered dismissing the petition.
[Note 1] Amendments to this section have no bearing upon this case.

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