Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

21 N.H. 41

Beckwith v. Cheever

Superior Court of New Hampshire

Decided July 15, 1850

Superior Court of New Hampshire · decided 1850-07-15

Case. The declaration alleged that. one Bellows made a contract with the plaintiff, by which he agreed to allow the plaintiff the right of entering upon a certain tract of land, and of cutting down… Held: by Lord Kenyon, that an action would lie for preventing certain negroes from coming to trade with the plaintiff, although he had no exclusive right to trade with them. Tarleton v. McG-auley, Peake, 205.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1850-07-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently October 1947

2 federal appellate · 7 state decisions

301850186018701880189019001910192019301940decided

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 →

Gilchrist, C. J.

¶1The evidence, as stated in the case, shows an agreement between the plaintiff and Bellows, that the plain-' tiff might enter upon the land, and cut and take away the timber if he chose, but that he need not inform Bellows at that time whether he would accept his proposition. But we cannot disregard that part of the case in which it is. stated that this information was to be given Bellows at some future day. This should *44have been done within a reasonable time ; and the proper time would have been, whenever the plaintiff should determine to accept the proposition. Until this should be done, whatever had passed between them must be considered as merely a proposition, which the plaintiff was holding under consideration. The plaintiff did not notify Bellows, nor did he enter upon the land. He did nothing but engage his brother to assist him. It cannot with propriety be said that this, not brought home to the knowledge of Bellows, can be regarded as an acceptance. Neither party did any thing to make the proposition binding, and neither was bound ; and we certainly cannot perceive that Bellows had incurred any liability to the plaintiff, for he did nothing but make the proposition, and does not appear to have known that the plaintiff intended to act upon it. We think, therefore, that no contract had been made, and that the action cannot be maintained. The verdict must be set aside and there must be

¶2Judgment for the defendant.

/21/nh/41 · .json · Public domain