9 A. 546
Supreme Court of New Hampshire Rockingham.
Decided December, 1886.
Section 3, c. 161, Gen. Laws, which relates to securing railroad crossings of highways, is not repealed by s. 7. c. 101, Laws of 1883.
PETITION for the examination of a railroad and highway crossing. March 25, 1886, the city councils of Portsmouth voted that the plaintiffs be required forthwith to protect, guard, and secure said crossing by gates. April 26, an attested copy of the vote was served on the plaintiffs, and May 22 they filed this petition. At the October term, 1886, the city moved that the petition be referred to the county commissioners, the railroads claiming that it should be referred to the railroad commissioners. The question so raised was reserved for the opinion of the court.
J. W. Fellows, for the plaintiffs.
S.W. Emery, for the defendants.
BINGHAM, J.
The question raised is, whether s. 3, c. 161, Gen. Laws, providing that a town by vote may require a railroad to secure the crossing of a highway by gates on both sides, is by implication repealed by s. 7, c. 101, Laws of 1883, authorizing the
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selectmen of a town to apply to the board of railroad commissioners to examine the condition and operation of any railroad, a part of which is in their town. Such an implied repeal may be found (1) where the provisions of the later statute are so inconsistent with and repugnant to those of the earlier one that both cannot be in force; (2) where the whole of the earlier law is revised by the new statute, and it is intended to prescribe the only rules to govern the subject. Neither of these exists in this case. State v. Wilson, 43 N.H. 415, 419. Petition referred to the county commissioners.
Case discharged.
CLARK, J., did not sit: the others concurred.