Stowe v. Buttrick
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Contract upon an account annexed for services rendered as keeper of certain property attached by the defendant, a deputy sheriff. Answer: 1. A general denial; 2. That the contract was illegal and void. Ar the trial in the Superior Court, before Bacon, J., without a jury, the plaintiff put in evidence a written appointment of himself as keeper of personal property of one Winchester, which had been attached by the defendant on a writ against Winchester.
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Contract upon an account annexed for services rendered as keeper of certain property attached by the defendant, a deputy sheriff. Answer: 1. A general denial; 2. That the contract was illegal and void. Ar the trial in the Superior Court, before Bacon, J., without a jury, the plaintiff put in evidence a written appointment of himself as keeper of personal property of one Winchester, which had been attached by the defendant on a writ against Winchester. He testified that there was no agreed price for the services to be rendered; that he kept possession of the property, and devoted his whole…
1Opinion of the CourtLord, J.
The ruling of the presiding judge, that the contract which the plaintiff seeks to enforce is void because of illegality, cannot be sustained. Cutter v. Howe, 122 Mass. 541, upon which the ruling is supposed to be based, admits of no such interpretation. That case decides only that a fee charged by an officer, which the law does not authorize, cannot be taxed as legal costs in the suit. If, for the purpose of keeping goods of very trifling bulk, an officer should hire an entire building which was wholly unnecessary, the rent of such building would not properly be taxable costs in the suit';…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Cutter v. HoweMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1877
3Cited by5 opinions
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