Morse v. Goddard
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
This was an action of debt, brought to recover five dollars, the amount of one month’s rent of a tenement. At the trial in the court of common pleas, before Washburn, J. on appeal from a justice of the peace, the plaintiff put into the case a lease, made by him to the defendant, dated January 6th 1846, of a certain tenement, for one year, reserving rent in monthly payments, and stated that the action was brought for the rent of the month ending April 6th 1846. The defendant…
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This was an action of debt, brought to recover five dollars, the amount of one month’s rent of a tenement. At the trial in the court of common pleas, before Washburn, J. on appeal from a justice of the peace, the plaintiff put into the case a lease, made by him to the defendant, dated January 6th 1846, of a certain tenement, for one year, reserving rent in monthly payments, and stated that the action was brought for the rent of the month ending April 6th 1846. The defendant admitted that he entered into the tenement, under the lease and that he was still in possession. But he proposed to…
1Opinion of the CourtShaw, C. J.
In a justice action of debt for a month’s rent, the defence was, that the defendant had been ousted, by persons having a paramount title, before the commencement of the time for which the rent was claimed.
The defendant offered evidence to show, that persons having a valid title, paramount to that of the defendant and his lessor, the plaintiff, and having an immediate right of entry, and of possession under it, made an actual entry on the premises, and required the defendant to pay rent to them from the time of such entry, or quit the premises. But it is objected to this defence, that a tenant…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Gore v. BrazierMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1807
- Pendleton v. DyettNew York Supreme Court · 1825
3Cited by3 opinions
- Grant v. BriskinSupreme Court of Rhode Island · 1992
- Stanley v. ToppingOregon Supreme Court · 1914
- Jones & Brindisi, Inc. v. BernsteinNew York Supreme Court · 1922