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116 Mass. 136

Sheldon v. Grady

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided October 22, 1874

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1874-10-22

Poor debtors’ oath. On December 31, 1872, after the arrest of the defendant on an execution issued on a judgment recovered in a civil action, and pending his examination before a master in chancery upon his application to take the oath for the relief of poor debtors, the judgment creditor filed charges of fraud, under the Gen. Sts. c. 124, §§ 31-34, alleging that since the debt was contracted and the cause of action accrued for which the defendant had been arrested, he had…

Decided 1874-10-22

Endicott, J.

¶1The evidence was properly excluded. The plaintiffs attempted to prove how much had been paid by the defendant upon a certain mortgage. They called the mortgagee who testified how much he had received, as the proceeds of the sale by the defendant of certain lands, which proceeds he had applied to the payment of the mortgage debt. The plaintiffs then offered copies of the deeds of the land so sold for the single purpose of showing by the amount of the consideration in each deed how much had been paid on the mortgage. This they con tend was competent as an admission by the defendant of the amount paid. The consideration named in the several deeds was primâ facie evidence of the amount received, and so far an admission by the defendant. But it is no admission of the amount paid on the mortgage; that was a separate and distinct transaction. Upon the facts before us, and for the particular purpose for Which the deeds were offered, they were not competent.

¶2Exceptions overruled.

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