May enforce regulations as to house drainage. 16. Such boards may prepare and enforce in their respective cities such regulations as they may deem necessary for the P.S., c. 80, § 12. safety and health of the people, with reference to house drain 1702 1877 1881 Cities to vote on acceptance of five preceding sections, when. Public Statutes, c. 80, § 13. 1879 Towns may authorize to make age and its connection with public sewers, where a public sewer abuts the estate to be drained. 17. If at any time a city has not voted to accept the five preceding sections, or chapter one hundred and thirty-three of the statutes of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, and fifty voters residing therein present a written request to that effect thirty days prior to any meeting for the election of city officers therein, the mayor and aldermen shall notify and warn the legal voters thereof to vote upon the acceptance of said sections at such election. 18. Any town may authorize its board of health to make boards of health and enforce in such town such regulations as said board may regulations as to deem necessary for the safety and health of the people with reference to house drainage and its connection with public sewers, where a public sewer abuts the estate to be drained. Whoever violates any such regulation shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars. house drainage and its connection with sewers. 1889, 108. City or town may contract for the disposal of garbage, etc. 1889, 377. In case of epidemic, etc., may be appointed in 19. Any city or town may, by its board of aldermen, selectmen, board of health or other officer or officers having in charge the disposition of the garbage, refuse and offal of such city or town, contract for a term of years for the disposition of such garbage, refuse and offal by cremation or otherwise. 20. In case of a severe epidemic, or other danger to the boards of health public health, the mayor and aldermen of the city where there is no board of health may, upon the request of one hundred voters residing therein, appoint such a board to act during the emergency, with the powers and duties of a board of health duly appointed under section eight [of chapter 80, Public Statutes]. cities not accepting, etc. P. S., c. 80, § 14. 1879 City physician how appointed, when ex officio 21. In cities where the city physician is ex officio a member of the board of health, he shall be appointed by the mayor, with the approval of the board of aldermen, for a term of three P. S., c. 80, § 15. years, subject to removal, for cause, by the same authority. 1878 a member of board; how removed. Board of health may appoint agents, etc. 22. The board of health in a city or town may appoint an agent or agents to act for it in cases of emergency, or when it cannot be conveniently assembled; and such agent so appointed P. S., c. 80, § 16. shall have all the authority which the board appointing him 1866 had; but he shall, within two days, report his action in each case to it for its approval, and shall be directly responsible to 1879 it and under its control and direction. An agent appointed to make sanitary inspections may make complaint in cases of violation of any law, ordinance, or by-law relating to the public health in a city or town. 23. The board of health of a city or town shall retain charge of any case arising under the provisions of this chapter in which it shall have acted, to the exclusion of the overseers of the poor. To retain to make regula nuisances, etc. NUISANCES, SOURCES OF FILTH, CAUSES OF SICKNESS, ETC. 24. The board of health of a town shall make such regula- Board of health tions as it judges necessary for the public health and safety, tions respecting respecting nuisances, sources of filth and causes of sickness, P. S., c. 80, § 18. within its town, or on board of vessels within the harbor of such town, and respecting articles which are capable of containing or conveying infection or contagion, or of creating sickness, brought into or conveyed from its town, or into or from any vessel. Whoever violates any such regulation shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars. The keeping of swine may be prohibited as a sanitary regulation. The prohibition may apply to the entire town or city, or only to a part of the town or city, if that part is so situated as to require peculiar and exceptional provisions. Commonwealth v. Patch, 97 Mass. 221. A regulation that no person shall remove, cart, or carry through any of the streets, lanes or alleys of a city, any house-dirt, refuse, offal, filth or animal or vegetable substance from any of the dwelling-houses or other places occupied by the inhabitants, in any cart, wagon, truck, hand-cart or other vehicle, unless such person so removing, together with the cart, shall be duly licensed for that employment and purpose by the mayor and aldermen, upon such terms and conditions as they shall deem the health, comfort, convenience or interest of the city require, on pain of forfeiting a sum not less than three dollars nor more than twenty, is valid. Vandine, petitioner, 6 Pickering, 187; 135 Mass. 490. 1797 To give notice of regulations. 25. The board shall give notice of all regulations made by it by publishing the same in some newspaper of its town, or, where there is no such newspaper, by posting them up in some 1816 public place in the town. Such notice shall be deemed legal notice to all persons. Notice must be given of general regulations prescribed by the board before parties can be held in fault for a disregard of their require Board of health to examine into and abate nuisances, etc. ments. But although such general regulations may seriously interfere with the enjoyment of private property, and disturb the exercise of valuable private rights, no previous notice to parties so to be affected by them is necessary to their validity. They belong to that class of police regulations to which all individual rights of property are held subject, whether established directly by enactments of the legislative power, or by its authority through boards of local administration. City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 443. 26. The board shall examine into all nuisances, sources of filth and causes of sickness, within its town, or in any vessel P.S., c. 80, § 20. within the harbor of such town, that may in its opinion be injurious to the health of the inhabitants, and shall destroy, remove, or prevent the same as the case may require. 1797 To order certain nuisances, etc., abated by owner. 1797 27. The board or the health officer shall order the owner or occupant at his own expense to remove any nuisance, source P.S., c. 80, § 21. of filth, or cause of sickness, found on private property, within twenty-four hours, or such other time as it deems reasonable, after notice served as provided in the following section; and if the owner or occupant neglects so to do, he shall forfeit a sum not exceeding twenty dollars for every day during which he knowingly permits such nuisance or cause of sickness to remain after the time prescribed for the removal thereof. The board may order the removal of a nuisance without previous notice to the owner or occupant, and without any opportunity by him to be heard. City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 443. In the above case, Wells, J., says, in relation to boards of health: "Their action is intended to be prompt and summary. They are clothed with extraordinary powers for the protection of the community from noxious influences affecting life and health, and it is important that their proceedings should be embarassed and delayed as little as possible by the necessary observance of formalities. Although notice and opportunity to be heard upon matters affecting private interests ought always to be given when practicable, yet the nature and object of those proceedings are such that it is deemed to be most for the general good that such notice should not be essential to the right of the board to act for the public safety. Delay for the purpose of giving notice, involving the necessity either of public notice or of inquiry to ascertain who are the parties whose interests will be affected, and further delay for such hearings as the parties may think necessary for the protection of their interests, might defeat all beneficial results from an attempt to exercise the powers conferred upon boards of health. The necessity of the case and the importance of the public interests at stake justify the omission of notice to the individual." The adjudication of the board that a nuisance exists is conclusive, and no appeal lies therefrom. City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 449. The board should keep an accurate record of their proceedings, and all adjudications should appear therein in clear and distinct language. An order of the board of health of a city, under Pub. Stats., chap. 80, sect. 21 (Gen. Stats., chap. 26, sect. 8), directing the owner of land to remove a nuisance in a specific manner is void. Watuppa Reservoir Company v. Colin Mackenzie, 132 Mass. 71. In the absence of statutory authority neither the board of health nor the city council of a city has any power to erect a dam on a person's land, without his consent, for the purpose of abating a nuisance existing on adjacent land. A city is not responsible for damages resulting from work done under the supposed authority of illegal and void votes of the city council; and it is immaterial that the work was done in a negligent manner. Cavanagh v. City of Boston, 139 Mass. 426. An indictment charged that the defendant, at certain times and at a place named, "near the dwelling-houses of divers good citizens of the said Commonwealth, and also near divers public streets and common highways there situate," did keep and maintain five hundred swine, "by reason whereof divers large quantities of noisome, noxious and unwholesome smokes, smells and stenches on the days and times aforesaid, then and there were emitted, . . . and the air thereabouts greatly filled and impregnated with many noisome . . . stinks and stenches, and has been corrupted and rendered very insalubrious, to the great damage and common nuisance of all the citizens," etc. Held, sufficient. A piggery, in which swine are kept in such numbers that their natural odors fill the air thereabouts, and make the occupation of the neighboring houses and passage over the adjacent highways disagreeable, is a nuisance. On the trial of an indictment for maintaining a common nuisance, by keeping a large number of swine in the neighborhood of certain dwellings and highways, evidence is inadmissible that it is a custom in this Commonwealth to tolerate the location of such establishments in populous localities. Commonwealth v. Perry, 139 Mass. 198. A notice issued, under the Pub. Stats., chap. 80, sect. 21, by the board of health of a town to the occupant of certain premises, ordering him to remove the nuisance existing thereon, may be served by a constable, although he is a member of the board of health, and signs the notice. A notice issued, under the Pub. Stats., chap. 80, sect. 21, by the board of health of a town to the occupant of certain premises, reciting that a nuisance, “consisting of a filthy hog-pen and stable,” exists thereon, and ordering him "to abate the said nuisance on your estate, and also to remove your hogs outside the limits of the village, within Order for abatement, how served. P. S., c. 80, § 22. 1849 forty-eight hours after the service hereof," is valid as an order to abate the nuisance, and is not rendered void by the direction to remove the hogs. It is not necessary that a complaint to recover the forfeiture provided by the Pub. Stats., chap. 80, sect. 21, for permitting a nuisance to remain on the premises after the time prescribed by the board of health of the town for its removal, should be made by the town treasurer, but it may be made by an agent of the board of health, appointed under the Pub. Stats., chap. 80, sect. 16. An omission in a complaint, under the Pub. Stats., chap. 80, sect. 21, for permitting a nuisance to remain on the premises after the time prescribed by the board of health of the town for its removal, to allege that the complainant is an agent of the board of health, he being in fact such agént, is at most a formal defect, which can be availed of only by a motion to quash. Commonwealth v. William N. Alden, 143, Mass., page 113. 28. Such order shall be made in writing, and served by any person competent to serve a notice in a civil suit, personally on the owner, occupant, or his authorized agent; or a copy of the order may be left at the last and usual place of abode of the owner, occupant, or agent, if he is known and within the state. But if the premises are unoccupied and the residence of the owner or agent is unknown or without the state, the notice may be served by posting the same on the premises and advertising in one or more public newspapers in such manner and for such length of time as the board or health officer may direct. The manifest purpose of this provision is to enable the owner or occupant to remedy the evil in the mode least detrimental or offensive to himself, and thus secure himself and his premises from the intrusion of the agents of the board of health. City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 444. The order addressed to a person directing him to remove a nuisance should describe the nature and locality of the nuisance. City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 444. It is not the purpose of the order to direct in what mode the person should proceed to remove the nuisance. It should direct the end to be accomplished, leaving the party to adopt any effectual mode which he may choose. City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 444. An order of a board of health, reciting that a railroad company, by filling up parts of a mill-pond in Salem, without supplying suitable and safe culverts, sluiceways, trenches, and other means of drainage, have created and are maintaining a nuisance at said pond, which is dangerous to the public health, and a cause of sickness to the inhabitants, and requiring the company to remove said nuisance and cause of sick |