Court Opinion

ID: 9723658
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:25:46.01341+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:50.794525
License: Public Domain

Cutter, J.
(concurring) I concur in the result, but would place the decision on the ground that the original 1937 by-law was validly adopted. In 1937, the town itself, instead of the selectmen, acted to set up the special group to make a purely advisory report, later acted upon by the town meeting. Nothing suggests that the provision in c. 40, § 27, as appearing in St. 1933, c. 269, § 1, authorizing the appointment by the selectmen of a special zoning board, was included in the statute otherwise than as a convenient procedural method of avoiding the necessity of a town meeting for such an appointment. The deviation from the statutory method seems to me at most a “trivial procedural defect” which is of no substantial significance in the light of the apparent legislative objectives. See Hallenborg v. Town Clerk of Billerica, 360 Mass. 513, 517-518, and authorities there cited. There was no failure of the special committee to make recommendations. Cf. Whittemore v. Town Clerk of Falmouth, 299 Mass. 64, 68-69.