McDonald v. Willis
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Petition to enforce a mechanic’s lien. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Mason, J., the petitioner offered a certificate of his account, duly filed in the registry of deeds; but it appeared, from the evidence of the petitioner, that the certificate was sworn to before a magistrate who was at the time the attorney of the petitioner in said matter.
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Petition to enforce a mechanic’s lien. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Mason, J., the petitioner offered a certificate of his account, duly filed in the registry of deeds; but it appeared, from the evidence of the petitioner, that the certificate was sworn to before a magistrate who was at the time the attorney of the petitioner in said matter. The respondent objected to the certificate, on the ground that the justice administering the oath was at that time the attorney of the party in relation to the cause involved in said oath; but the judge overruled the objection, and admitted…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court.
It is true that a man cannot be a judge and an attorney for one of the parties in the same cause. But it has always been the uniform usage for attorneys for either party to administer oaths, as justices of the peace, to their clients or others, when the necessity for voluntary affidavits arises in a case; and there is no sound objection to this where the oaths are voluntary, and the act of the justice is substantially ministerial, and not judicial.
In the case before us, the act of the attorney of the petitioner, in administering to him the oath to his certificate, was *453substantiall…
2Cited by7 opinions
- United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. English Construction Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1939
- McOuatt v. McOuattMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1946
- Calhoun County Bank v. EllisonWest Virginia Supreme Court · 1949
- State ex rel. Taubman v. DavisMissouri Court of Appeals · 1918
- Adoption of ThomasMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1990
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