[Download] "Williams v. Commercial Trust Co. Et Al." by Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Williams v. Commercial Trust Co. Et Al.
- Author : Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
- Release Date : January 14, 1931
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 72 KB
Description
PIERCE, J. This is an appeal by the defendant Commercial Trust Company from an interlocutory decree in the Superior Court confirming the master's report except as modified in said decree, sustaining the plaintiff's first objection to the master's report, overruling the objections of the defendant trust company other than subdivisions 'j' and 'k' of its ninth objection, and allowing the motion of the plaintiff, filed October 18, 1929, to amend his bill of complaint. It is also an appeal from a final decree in the same case ordering the defendant trust company to cancel and deliver up three promissory notes, two for $22,000 each, dated respectively May 29, and May 31, 1922, and one for $4,000, dated December 31, 1923, together with a third mortgage deed securing one of the $22,000 notes; decreeing that there is due Frank B. Mason upon a note of $12,000 dated May 29, 1922 ($6,000 of the principal having been paid), including interest to the date of the decree, $6,797, and commanding and enjoining the trust company within thirty days of the entry of the decree to pay and discharge said note and to cause the same, together with the second mortgage from the plaintiff to one Sacks now held by said Mason on the real estate aforesaid, to be cancelled and delivered up to the plaintiff, or in the alternative to pay to the plaintiff $6,000 and interest thereon at the rate of 6 per cent. per annum from June 1, 1928, to the date of payment, and, in default of such payment either to the present holder of said mortgage or to the plaintiff, execution is to issue for said sum of $6,000 with interest thereon at the rate and from the date aforesaid; and enjoining the trust company from enforcing the payment of the three notes first mentioned. By way of counterclaim the trust company in its answer sought affirmative relief for the payment of the money which, it alleged, it had lent to the plaintiff and which was represented by the three notes described in the plaintiff's bill of complaint, one of said $22,000 notes having been given as collateral for the other $22,000 note. On the defendant's counterclaim the master found in so far as questions of fact were presented that: (1) 'The notes and each of them above referred to were given for full value;' (2) 'There was no want or failure of consideration for any of them;' (3) 'The $22,000. mortgage note was given as collateral for the $22,000. Bank note;' (4) 'There is due the Bank, unless as a matter of law on the facts in this report, barred by the statute of limitations or subject to other defenses, $22,000. plus interest at six per cent. from January 1, 1924, amounting, to the date of the bill, to $27,943.67; and $4,000. plus interest at six per cent. from December 31, 1931, amounting, to the date of the bill, to $5,081.33; a total of $33,025;' (5) 'There is due Frank B. Mason, $6,000. plus interest at six per cent. from the date to which interest has been paid, and what that date is doesn't appear.' In his bill of complaint and brief the plaintiff, as against the trust company, seeks exoneration, protection and indemnity from the above described alleged obligations, both by virtue of the trust company's express promise and through the principle of the law of agency to the effect that an agent is entitled to indemnity from his principal for liabilities incurred by the agent in carrying into effect an act which the employer appears to have a right to authorize him to do, and which would be lawful if the employer had the authority he pretends to have; and if he is barred from relief upon both of these grounds, he contends that he is entitled to the same relief upon the basis of an implied contract of the trust company to return, or to compensate him for, benefits received by the trust company at the plaintiff's expense. At the trial, by agreement of parties the original bill of complaint was dismissed as to the Commercial Trust Corporation.