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59 N.H. 531

Page v. Snell

Supreme Court of New Hampshire

Decided June 5, 1880

Supreme Court of New Hampshire · decided 1880-06-05

Assumpsit, for services in nursing, and for boarding the defendant’s testate. When the services were rendered, the plaintiff’s husband, a son of the deceased, was his tenant, managing his farm upon shares. They all occupied the same house, the deceased living apart from the others constituting a separate family. The referee found an “ implied promise of the deceased to pay for the services,” and awarded damages. Judgment was ordered on the report, and the defendant excepted.

Relies on Bundy v. Hyde · Bickford v. Dane · Hatch v. Purcell

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1880-06-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently December 1948

4 state decisions

101880189019001910192019301940decided

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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Allen, J.

¶1 If the referee, in finding an “ implied promise,” intended to find that, from the facts stated, a promise resulted as a conclusive presumption of law, the finding was erroneous. Bickford v. Dane, 58 N. H. 185; Savings-Bank v. Getchell, ante 281. It is more natural and probable that by the phrase “implied promise” the referee intended to convey the idea that the testator made no express promise to pay the plaintiff, but, from the benefits he received from the services and other facts proved, a promise or understanding on his part that he was to pay was inferred. A promise or contract found by inference from other facts has been sometimes called an implied promise or contract. Hatch v. Pur cell, 21 N. H. 544, 547. Such a promise, taken as an inference of fact and not as a presumption of law, there was warrant for finding from the facts stated, which were competent evidence for that purpose.

¶2 N o question of kindred or relationship between the plaintiff and the testator could have arisen; nor if it had would it have made any difference. Bundy v. Hyde, 50 N. H. 116, 123. The question was, whether there was a mutual understanding between the plaintiff and the deceased, on her part that she was to be paid for her services, and on his part that he was to pay for them. The referee, having inferred and found such an understanding, properly awarded damages to the plaintiff.

¶3 Exceptions overruled.

Foster, J., did not sit: the others concurred.
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