Stebbins v. Peck

Decided September 15, 1857

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1857-09-15

Action of contract for use and occupation. Trial in the court of common pleas in Hampden, at March term 1857. The plaintiff proved the use and occupation of his land by the defendant. The defendant testified that the use and occupation were under a contract made on the Lord’s day; and therefore contended that the plaintiff could not recover.

Decided 1857-09-15

Dewey, J.

¶1This case is not affected by the Rev. Sts. c. 50, forbidding unnecessary labor on the Lord’s day; for the defendant entered on the land subsequently to the Lord’s day, on which the contract was made, and by such subsequent entry and continued occupation created a new liability if no legal contract existed previously. It was either a ratification and adoption of a previous inoperative contract, or was the foundation of a new implied provision to pay for the use of the land what the same was reasonably worth. In either aspect the

¶2Exceptions must be overruled.