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115 Mass. 42

Hewes v. Cooper

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1874-03-11

Contract against James Cooper, George K. Babcock, Edward M. Chase, and Samuel F. Ricker, the principals and sureties on a bond alleged to have been signed and sealed by them, as follows: “ Know all men by these presents, that we, Edward M. Chase and Samuel F. Ricker, both of Boston, in the county of Suffolk, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as principals, and James Cooper and George K. Babcock, as sureties, are holden and stand firmly bound and obliged unto Cyrus E. Hewes,…

Relies on Leonard v. Speidel

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1874-03-11

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently February 1935

5 state decisions

201874188018901900191019201930decided

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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Ames, J.

¶1The insertion of the creditor’s name in the condition of the bond, in the place intended for that of the original debtor, thereby requiring literally that the creditor should pay to himself the amount of a judgment which he should recover against the other party in the suit, was a manifest clerical error, which will not vitiate the bond or defeat the intention of the .parties, provided that intent can be distinctly ascertained from the entire instrument. The erroneous name may be stricken out. Leonard v. Speidel, 104 Mass. 356.

¶2An imperfect recital of the preliminary facts, which is correct *44as far as it goes, provided it describes correctly the suit to which the bond applies, and states with substantial accuracy the condition which is to be fulfilled, will not defeat the creditor’s remedy in a suit on the bond. For this reason the omission in the bond to designate the ownership of the attached property is immaterial. The bond is substantially in conformity to the provisions of the statute. Exceptions sustained.

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