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75 Mass. 274

Crowell v. Brown

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided October 15, 1857

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1857-10-15

Action of contract upon a bond executed on the 4th of June 1855, with this condition : “ Whereas on or about the first day of January last past the said Elisha Brown entered into a certain agreement in writing, by the terms of which said Brown agrees to build a schooner duly described in said writing, and have the same completed on or about the first day of August next; and in and by said agreement said Levi Crowell was and is to make certain payments towards said schooner…

Decided 1857-10-15

Thomas, J.

¶1The question is as to the breach of the bond.. That the vessel was not completed and delivered to the plaintiff according to the bond is agreed. The object of the bond is plain; security for the delivery of the vessel and for the ad vanees made upon her. The defendant says, there was no breach, because the five thousand dollars to be paid by the agreement for the construction of the vessel when it was in frame was not paid. As the bond was not given until after the vessel was in frame and the five thousand dollars had become-due, this construction would render performance on the part of the plaintiff impossible, and so the bond void from inception. Such construction clearly defeats the purposes of the contract.

¶2Judgment for the plaintiff.

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