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141 Mass. 61

Willett v. White

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided January 14, 1886

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1886-01-14

Contract, against the administrator of the estate of Lois P. B. White, upon a promissory note for $500, dated April 11, 1881, signed by the defendant’s intestate, and payable to the order of the plaintiff. Answer : 1. A general denial. 2. Want of consideration. 3. That the action was prematurely brought. 4. That the note was given as collateral security for an obligation which had been discharged, or the liability under which had never arisen.

Decided 1886-01-14

By the Court.

¶1The only question presented by this bill of exceptions is whether the Superior Court was right in rejecting the offer of the defendant to give to the plaintiff a release of his interest in the real estate conveyed by his wife to the plaintiff. This was not admissible under any of the issues in the case. The bill of exceptions does not show what the consideration of the note was. But if it was given to her because the defendant refused to sign the wife’s deed, as the defendant contends, the plaintiff was not obliged to accept his offer, unless she had agreed with the defendant’s intestate to do so.

¶2No such agreement is set up in the answer; and, under the pleadings as they stand, the court rightly excluded the offer and the deed of release.

¶3Exceptions overruled.

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