Abbott v. Winchester

Decided September 15, 1870

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1870-09-15

Contract against the administrators of the estate of Rodolphus Converse, on a promissory note made by him, dated August 25,1856, and payable on demand to Maria Clark or order. The note was given in payment for services rendered to the maker by the payee ; and was left in the hands of the attesting witness, for the benefit of the payee. The maker and payee intermarried, September 24, 1856.

Relies on Chapman v. Kellogg

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1870-09-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently January 1909

9 state decisions

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.

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Chapman, C. J.

¶1The note in suit was given by Rodolphus Converse, the defendants’ intestate, to Maria Clark, August 25, 1856. It was given in payment for services rendered to the maker by the payee, and was left in the hands of the attesting witness. On the 24th of the following month the parties intermarried ; and sometime afterwards it was delivered to the maker, who kept it for the benefit of his wife till a few weeks before his death.

¶2The principle stated in Chapman v. Kellogg, 102 Mass. 246, must govern this case. The note became a mere nullity, and could not be revived by the death of the husband.

¶3Judgment for the defendants.