Winchester v. Patterson

Decided October 15, 1820

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1820-10-15

Assumpsit for money had and received. The action came before the Court on an agreed statement of facts. [ * 63 ] * William Patterson, the defendant’s intestate, being bound on a voyage from Salem to Cayenne, the plaintiff shipped an adventure of soap and candles in the same vessel, which he consigned to the said William; and it was agreed that the consignee should retain a certain stipulated percentage as freight, and the use of the money which the adventure should produce,…

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1820-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently February 1908

5 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.

¶1When the defendant’s intestate had made sale of the plaintiff’s goods, and converted them into money, or into other articles of merchandise suitable for the home market, he became the absolute debtor of the plaintiff, to the amount which the goods produced. He had a right to apply the proceeds to his own use, and it appears that he did so. The plaintiff is entitled to recover the price for which his goods were sold in the foreign port, •f that can now be ascertained. If not, let him take judgment for the invoice value here, with interest from the date of the shipment in lieu of his expected profits (3).

¶2Defendant defaulted.

¶3 [By the agreement the plaintiff was entitled only to the produce or net amount of the sales, after deducting the freight. Want of evidence could not alter the con tract.—Ed.]