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142 Mass. 538

Chaffee v. Blaisdell

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided October 22, 1886

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1886-10-22

Replevin of “ one Emerson piano, style C, No. 30964.” Trial in the Superior Court, without a jury, before Knowlton, J., who allowed a bill of exceptions, in substance as follows: The plaintiff offered evidence tending to show that, on October 2, 1883, one S. K. Elliott obtained from the Boston Loan Company, of which the plaintiff was an officer, $175, and gave for it a promissory note for that amount, payable to the Boston Loan Company one month from that date, and signed “…

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1886-10-22

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently June 1957

6 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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Gardner, J.

¶1The defendant was in possession of the piano at the time it was replevied. He claimed to be an innocent purchaser of the same from one Nannie T. Elliott, who said that she owned the piano. The plaintiff attempted to show title in himself by a transfer and assignment to him by “ Walbridge Brothers ” of all their right, title, and interest in one “ Emerson piano, style C, No. 30964, and one piano stool, specified in a certain lease dated Feb’y 6, 1883, and numbered 4172.” The plaintiff failed to show any title in “ Walbridge Brothers.” He had not shown possession of the piano, and delivery to him. The assignment was inadmissible.

¶2The note given by S. K. Elliott to the Boston Loan Company for $175, and the indorsement upon the note, were each signed “Nannie T. Elliott per S. K. Elliott, Atty. under seal.” The *542plaintiff also offered the lease from Walbridge Brothers, signed as follows: “ Witness my hand and seal, Nannie T. Elliott by S. K. Elliott, Atty.” There was no evidence of the existence of any written power of attorney from Nannie T. Elliott to S. K. Elliott, nor that she knew that he had executed any papers in her name, nor that she had ratified their execution. The possession of the piano by Nannie T. Elliott, and its sale by her to the defendant, would create no presumption of authority in S. K. Elliott to act for her, or of her ratification of his past acts. Combs v. Scott, 12 Allen, 493. The several papers purporting to be executed by S. K. Elliott as attorney for Nannie T. Elliott were properly rejected. When these papers were excluded, it is difficult to see what evidence there was in the case, upon which the plaintiff could maintain his action. There was no evidence showing the identity of the piano. The plaintiff failed to show what was meant by “ Emerson piano, style C, No. 30964,” and there was no evidence by which it could be inferred that there was only one of this kind of piano. The plaintiff failed to prove that the defendant had possession of the identical property claimed by the plaintiff.

¶3After rejecting the written evidence offered, the Superior Court properly refused to give the ruling requested, and rightly ruled that the evidence introduced was insufficient to sustain the plaintiff’s case.

¶4Exceptions overruled.

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