Wood v. Simons

Decided September 15, 1872

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1872-09-15

Petition to enforce a lien for work done on a building of the respondent in Greenfield. The case was submitted to the judgment of the Superior Court, and, on appeal, of this court, on an agreed statement of facts, of which the following is all that is material. The petitioner ceased to work upon the building on April 22, 1871.

Relies on Fuller v. Cunningham

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1872-09-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently May 1969

5 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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Wells, J.

¶1This case is governed by Fuller v. Cunningham, 105 Mass. 442, unless it is to be distinguished by the fact that there is no express provision of law requiring the clerk to note, upon the creditor’s statement of claim, the time of filing, as there is in regard to mortgages of personal property and assignments of wages. Gen. Sts. c. 151, § 3. But the provisions of the Gen. Sts. c. 150, § 5, requiring the creditor to file his claim in the office of the town clerk, or giving him the right to do so, impose upon the clerk an official authority and duty to make that filing effectual. His indorsement of a memorandum of the time of receiving and filing the paper is an act in the course of his official duty. When made at the time, and certified by him, if not conclusive in all respects, we think it cannot be impeached by evidence merely that it was made and the paper received by the tlerk at his house instead of his office.

¶2Judgment for the petitioner.