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13 Mass. 224

Learned v. Bryant

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1816-05-15

This was an action of the case, brought by the plaintiff, as admin istratrix of the estate of David Learned, Esq., deceased, late sheriff of the County of Oxford, against the defendants, upon a receipt and promise made by them, by which they acknowledged to have received of him sundry articles of the value of $ 220, which he had attached on a writ against one Nathaniel Sawtell; and which they promised to deliver to the said intestate when he should call for the same, towards…

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1816-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently July 1903

12 state decisions

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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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By the Court.

¶1It is admitted, in this case, that the defendants could prove, that the goods, committed to them by the deceased sheriff, were, in truth, the property of a stranger, and not of him for whose debt they were attached. This is certainly admissible evidence ; for the defendants were not bound by their receipt, at all events, to retain the goods. They were certainly not bound’to hold them against the demand of him who had the right. That person might have taken them out of their hands by replevin ; and they were under no obligation to resist a claim at the expense of a lawsuit, if they were willing to incur the peril of surrendering them. The sheriff was not liable to an action for not levying upon these *185goods ; and we think the defendants not liable to the sheriff upon their receipt. * Under these circumstances, it being admitted, that the property of the goods was in Benjamin Sawtell, whose administrator formerly demanded the same of the defendants, and has since disposed of them in discharging the debts of the rightful owner, the plaintiff has disclosed no sufficient . cause of action, and she must, therefore, be called.

¶2Plaintiff nonsuit

¶3[Denny vs. Willard, 11 Pick. 519.—Fisher vs. Bartlett, 8 Greenl. 122.— Ed.]

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