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92 Mass. 34

Knowlton v. Sewall

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided January 15, 1865

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1865-01-15

Contract. The declaration alleged a failure on the part of the defendant to carry to the plaintiff’s wharf a quantity of stone, according to the terms of the following agreement, signed and sealed by the parties: u This identure, made this tenth day of December in the year of our Lord 1852, . . . witnesseth, that the said W. H. Knowlton, in consideration of the said Sewall’s agreeing to carry all the stone quarried on his premises, that is to be carried away in vessels, on…

Decided 1865-01-15

Dewey, J.

¶1The rulings of the superior court upon the lega, effect of this somewhat anomalous contract seem to us to have been correct. We think that it must be understood, although very broad and unlimited in its language, to contemplate an arrangement only coextensive with the continued ownership, or at least possession, by the parties of their respective estates. It imposed no obligation on the plaintiff to continue perpetually to be the owner of his estate, nor upon the defendant to continue perpetually to be the owner of the estate upon which the stone quarry was situated. It was certainly a contract all the benefits of which to the plaintiff were wholly dependent upon the voluntary action of the defendant in carrying on the business of quarrying stone. If there were no stone quarried on the premises, then the plaintiff would have no profits from the contract; but no ground would exist for complaint for any breach of any obligation assumed by the defendant. The parties having made this contract with no provision as to the period of its limitation, the court must give it a reasonable construction. The rulings at the trial upon that point, and upon the effect of the evidence relied upon by the plaintiff to show that the defendant still continued to have the possession and control of the stone quarry, furnish no ground for setting aside the verdict.

¶2Judgment for the defendmt.

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