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115 Mass. 21

O'Connell v. Jacobs

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1874-03-06

Tort in the nature of trover for the conversion of building materials. The case was heard in the Superior Court without a jury, by Lord, J., who after judgment for the defendant allowed ft bill of exceptions in substance as follows: The plaintiff sought to recover the value of certain building materials, detached from a building in Boston, the estate of the plaintiff, upon which the defendant, a mason, was employed by the tenant of the plaintiff, to make some alterations.

Decided 1874-03-06

Gray, C. J.

¶1Trial by jury having been waived, all questions

¶2of law and fact were to be determined by the presiding judge in the first instance. Upon all matters of fact his determination was final, and every reasonable inference is to be made in favor of his finding. The evidence reported warranted the judge in deciding that the defendant’s second refusal to return the property, like his first refusal, was merely a refusal to take it back to the plaintiff’s house, and that the defendant did not claim any right to retain it as his own, and did no act amounting to a conversion.

¶3Exceptions overruled.

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