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134 Mass. 22

Ray v. Powers

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided January 3, 1883

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1883-01-03

<p>The constitution of a voluntary association defined its object to be to stimulate a healthy interest in the breeding and management of pigeons and bantams, and to disseminate useful knowledge in relation thereto; gave the board of directors the charge and management of all public exhibitions of the society; and provided that each member should pay an initiation fee and an annual assessment. The society held a public exhibition and awarded premiums, and the expenses, including the premiums, were greater than the receipts. Held, that a bill in equity could be maintained, by those members who paid the loss, against other members for contribution, if the defendants participated in a vote to give the exhibition with premiums, or if they assented to such vote.</p>

Relies on Newell v. Borden

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1883-01-03

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently February 1934

9 state decisions

30188318901900191019201930decided

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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C. Allen, J.

¶1This bill was dismissed on the ground that the evidence was not competent and sufficient to maintain it. But, upon consideration, we think the evidence might have warranted a decision for the plaintiffs, as against both of the defendants. It is true that neither the constitution nor the by-laws of the society provide for holding exhibitions with premiums, or for any further liability on the part of the members than for the payment of the initiation fee and annual assessment. But it was not inconsistent with the purposes of the society, as shown by the constitution, to hold exhibitions and award premiums. Mere membership would not bind anybody for any further payment than the initiation fee and annual assessment; but such members as participated in a vote to incur further expenses for an exhibition with premiums, or as assented to be bound by such vote, would be bound thereby. It therefore became a question of fact whether either or both of the defendants so participated- or assented. It was not necessary to prove such participation or assent by formal records. Newell v. Borden, 128 Mass. 31, 34. The testimony introduced was competent, and its sufficiency should be determined as a question of fact.

¶2 Oase to stand for a further hearing.

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