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165 Mass. 303

Ryan v. Smith

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided February 28, 1896

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1896-02-28

Contract, to recover money paid by the plaintiff, a minor. Trial in the Superior Court, without a jury, before Sheldon, J., who found for the plaintiff; and the defendant alleged exceptions, the nature of which appears in the opinion.

Relies on McCarthy v. Henderson · Pyne v. Wood · Wallis v. Bardwell

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1896-02-28

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently June 1962

8 state decisions

2018961900191019201930194019501960decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Knowlton, J.

¶1The only question in this case is whether the judge should have ruled, at the request of the defendant, that the articles purchased by the plaintiff were necessaries. They were a barber’s shop and chair and divers other articles of furniture designed to be used in furnishing a barber’s shop. The plaintiff was a minor, and he had no means of support except what he earned. The law does not contemplate that a minor shall open a shop and become a trader, or the proprietor of a business which involves the making of a variety of contracts. This has long been settled by the authorities. Tupper v. Cadwell, 12 Met. 559. Mason v. Wright, 13 Met. 306. Merriam v. Cunningham, 11 Cush. 40. Wallis v. Bardwell, 126 Mass. 366. McCarthy v. Henderson, 138 Mass. 310. Pyne v. Wood, 145 Mass. 558. It is clear that the articles in question were not necessaries. If they had been hand tools to a reasonable amount, such as are ordinarily provided by a journeyman, and necessary for use in his trade or business, the case would be different.

¶2Exceptions overruled.

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