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119 Mass. 519

Smith v. McCarty

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided February 17, 1876

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1876-02-17

<p>The judge, before whom a writ of dower was tried without a jury, found as a fact that the land described in the writ was conveyed to the demandant’s husband; that he, on the same day, mortgaged it to a third person to secure his note to such person for money procured of him to pay for the land; and that the demandant did not join in the mortgage deed. The judge ruled, on these facts, that the demand-ant was entitled to dower. Held, that the facts stated did not conclusively prove that the seisin of the husband was instantaneous only.</p>

Cited by 2 later decisions — most recently May 1942

2 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1876-02-17

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Morton, J.

¶1It appears by the bill of exceptions that the land in which the demandant claims dower was conveyed to her husband by George Warren on November 30,1858, and that on the same day her husband mortgaged it to Elizabeth Dawson, to secure the payment of his note of one hundred dollars procured by him of her for the purpose of paying for this land. But this does not necessarily show that he had only an instantaneous seisin. It must be shown that, the deed to him and the mortgage by him were parts of one and the same transaction. Webster v. Campbell, 1 Allen, 313. Hazleton v. Lesure, 9 Allen, 24. King v. Stetson, 11 Allen, 407.

¶2The presiding judge, who tried this case without a jury, may have found upon the evidence before him that the deed and mortgage were not parts of one act or transaction, and therefore that the seisin of the demandant’s husband was not instantaneous, in which case the demandant, as she did not sign the mortgage, is entitled to dower in the whole estate. Without considering the other point taken by the demandant, that the mortgage was paid and discharged, these exceptions cannot be sustained because the bill does not show any error of the court below in matter of law. Exceptions overruled

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