Walker v. Melcher

Decided May 15, 1817

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1817-05-15

Error upon a judgment of the Court of Common Pleas for this county, rendered June term, 1814, upon the report of referees appointed pursuant to the statute of 1786, c. 21, commonly called The Referee Act, and which was accepted at that term. From the record it appeared that the rule of reference was en tered into on the 15th of November, 1813. The report commenced thus : “ Cumberland, ss. Brunswick, November 30, 1813.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1817-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently February 1857

3 state decisions

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.

¶1The objection, that the report was not made to the next court after it was agreed upon, is not supported in point *131of fact. The court being in session upon the 7th of March, the next term holden in June was the proper time for the return and acceptance of the report. »

¶2The referee, who did not join in the report, appears to have been present at the hearing, but did not agree with his brethren as to the amount of the damages. The report by the others is sufficient within the statute and the agreement of the parties.

¶3The certificate of the referees, that they had fully heard the parties, is a sufficient answer to the third objection.

¶4Alden for the defendant in error.

¶5Judgment affirmed.