Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

25 N.H. 78

Foss v. Strafford

Superior Court of New Hampshire

Decided July 15, 1852

Superior Court of New Hampshire · decided 1852-07-15

Petition of John C. Foss and others for a highway in Strafford. The petition was filed in the office of the clerk of the common pleas, on the 21st day of December, 1850, and an order of notice was issued, returnable at the January term, 1851; at which term the petition was referred to John Walker, Walter Durgin, and Bartholomew Wentworth, then road commissioners of the county. At the August term, 1851, the commissioners made their report, laying out the highway prayed for.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1852-07-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently March 1935

4 state decisions

10185218601870188018901900191019201930decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Eastman, J.

¶1This exception comes too late. As a general rule, exceptions will be considered as waived, unless taken at the first legal opportunity. Lisbon v. Bow, 10 N. H. Rep. 167; McConihe v. Sawyer, 12 N. H. Rep. 396; Stevens v. Goffstown, 1 Foster’s Rep. 454.

¶2This petition was re-committed to the former board of road commissioners, to whom it was originally committed, instead of the new board who were in office at the time of the re-commitment. The ruling by which the petition was re-committed was made at the August term, 1851, but the exception was not taken till the January term, 1852, after the commissioners had reported upon the petition. The exception should have been taken at the August term, when the petition was re-committed. If it had been, probably the court would have transferred the question; or if not, they would have placed the matter in such a situation, by signing a bill of exceptions or otherwise, as to save the rights of the town.

¶3It is true, the case states that the town objected to the reference at the time it was made, and moved that the petition be referred to the new board; but a mere objection cannot avail at any time. It must assume the form of an exception before the court can recognise it.

¶4This is, moreover, an objection to an order of the common pleas, falling within its proper discretion; and this court will not revise it unless sent here for that purpose. The statute provides that “ the road commissioners shall continue *82in office, as to all proceedings commenced or pending before them, until the same shall be completed, unless the court, for good cause shown, shall refer the same to the road commissioners for the time being.” The court decided that no such good cause was shown as to warrant them in taking the case out of the ordinary course; and they did not see fit to send the question to this court for advisement. This they might have done, however, had the objection assumed the form of an exception and been taken at the proper time.

¶5But matters falling within the discretion of an inferior tribunal are not grounds of exception, and cannot be reexamined in a superior court, unless sent up for examination. Clapp v. Hanson, 3 Shepl. Rep. 345; Jenkins v. Brown, 21 Wendell’s Rep. 454; Feneley v. Mahoney, 21 Pick. Rep. 212; Cummings v. Fullum, 13 Vermont Rep. 459; Commonwealth v. Sackett, 22 Pick. 394; Cutter v. Grover, 3 Shepl. 159.

¶6The exception must be overruled and the

¶7Report accepted.

/25/nh/78 · .json · Public domain