Sullivan v. Baxter

Decided November 29, 1889

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1889-11-29

Tort. The declaration alleged, in substance, that the plaintiff, in a former action brought by him against the defendant for the conversion of a derrick, recovered judgment for the value of the derrick only, which judgment Was satisfied; that by a mistake he failed to aver and claim in that action certain special damages which resulted from the conversion, namely, the loss of profits from a valuable contract which he had, and which was thereby seriously interfered with, and…

Relies on Folsom v. Clemence · Knowlton v. New York & New England Railroad · McCaffrey v. Carter

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1889-11-29

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently November 1935

9 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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Field, J.

¶1The conversion of the derrick by the defendant was a single wrongful act, for which only one action could be maintained. The plaintiff, having taken judgment in the former action for this conversion, cannot maintain the present action, because the cause of action is the same and the parties are the same as in the former action. The plaintiff could have alleged and proved in the former action any special damages which he was entitled to recover, and special damages do not constitute a separate cause of action. Trask v. Hartford New Haven Railroad, 2 Allen, 331. Folsom v. Clemence, 119 Mass. 473. McCaffrey v. Carter, 125 Mass. 330. Knowlton v. New York & New England Railroad, 147 Mass. 606. Bassett v. Connecticut River Railroad, ante, 178.

¶2Judgment for the defendant.