George L. Kaeser Et Al. v. Town Starksboro

After the decision in this case at the May Term, 1950, 116 Vt 251, 73 A.2d 881, where we held that the selectmen of the defendant town were authorized by the action taken at the town meeting of October 6, 1947, to purchase the snow plow unit in question, the defendant filed this petition for a new trial, in which it alleges that, at the properly warned annual town meeting in 1950, under an article in the warning therefor "to pass on the minutes of regular and special meetings not yet approved," the minutes of the October 6, 1947, meeting were read, and a motion was made "in order to correct the minutes" that the vote taken at that meeting under Article 14 of the warning therefor be amended to read: "Moved to buy a four wheel drive truck but not a Marmon Herrington," and that such amendment was made before our decision, but after the trial in county court. The petition further alleges that since the issue of the authority of the selectmen was tried on the recorded minutes of the town meeting, the amended minutes put the action of the town in an altogether different light, and that it would shock the conscience of any court to deny a new trial when it appears that the case was tried below on a document which did not correctly set forth the proceedings of which it was supposed to be a record; that no question of diligence is presented here, for the amended record did not come into existence until after the trial and parol evidence to correct the record would not have been admissible at the trial; and that no question is involved of misleading the plaintiffs, since there is no evidence that they relied on the original minutes and the issue has been narrowed by agreement as to whether the selectmen had authority, and in any event the evidence in the transcript clearly shows that the attorney of the plaintiffs attended the meeting and therefore must have been familiar with the proceedings thereat.