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92 Mass. 303

Gerrish v. Smyth

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided January 15, 1865

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1865-01-15

Contract upon a bond executed by the defendant to the plaintiff on the 17th of June 1856, the condition of which was as follows: “ The condition of this obligation is such that, whereas said George W. Gerrish did on the first day of July A. D. 1852 make a certain promissory note for the sum of fourteen hundred dollars, payable to the order of the said Abigail W. Smyth in three years after date with interest semi-annually, which note was secured by a power of sale mortgage…

Decided 1865-01-15

Hoar, J.

¶1It is difficult to give any sensible construction to the bond declared on. It recites a debt due from the plaintiff to the defendant, secured by a power of sale mortgage; a payment of part of the debt by the proceeds of the sale of the mortgaged premises; payment of the balance due, and of the whole debt; and then the condition of the bond is that the defendant shall indemnify and save harmless the plaintiff from all damage, loss or prejudice arising from said note and mortgage and from the sale of the mortgaged estate, and all expenses which may hereafter arise therefrom, and save the plaintiff harmless from any damage that may hereafter arise in consequence of said sale.” In what way the mortgage or sale could prejudice the plaintiff does not appear. The previous payment of his lawful debt *305would not seem to be of itself a legal damage or loss. Perhaps the most sensible construction would be that if the estate was sold for less than its real value, or if the plaintiff could not acquire a good title without paying more than it produced toward payment of his debt, he should recover the difference; but of this we give no opinion. There was no proof at the trial which would raise the question.

¶2As it was not shown that the plaintiff’s possession of the land was disturbed, or that he had been in any way molested by reason of the note and mortgage since the execution of the bond, or that he had been put to any expense, as the mortgage debt was paid, and the claim of the defendant under it discharged on the record, we can see no breach of the condition.

¶3Exceptions overruled.

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