Benson v. Monroe
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
This was an action of assumpsit, by the plaintiffs, as the owners of the ship Washington, to recover back the sum of $398.25, paid under protest by Benson, one of the plaintiffs, and master of said ship, on the 10th of January, 1848, to the defendant, as the superintendent of alien passengers for the city of Boston, appointed by the mayor and aldermen thereof, under the statute of 1837, c. 238. The action was tried before Bigelow, J., in the court of common pleas, when the…
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This was an action of assumpsit, by the plaintiffs, as the owners of the ship Washington, to recover back the sum of $398.25, paid under protest by Benson, one of the plaintiffs, and master of said ship, on the 10th of January, 1848, to the defendant, as the superintendent of alien passengers for the city of Boston, appointed by the mayor and aldermen thereof, under the statute of 1837, c. 238. The action was tried before Bigelow, J., in the court of common pleas, when the following, among other facts, appeared. On the 9th of December, 1847, the ship Washington, of Richmond, in Virginia,…
1Opinion of the CourtMetcalf, J.
The court deem this a plain case. It is an established rule of law, that if a party, with a full knowledge of the facts, voluntarily pays a demand unjustly made on him, and attempted to be enforced by legal proceedings, he cannot recover back the money, as paid by compulsion, unless there be fraud in the party enforcing the claim, and a knowledge that the claim is unjust. And the case is not altered by the fact, that the party, so paying, protests that he is not answerable, and gives notice that he shall bring an action to recover the money back. He has an opportunity, in the first instance,…
2Cited by7 opinions
- Weiner v. MinorSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1938
- Atlanta Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. FainCourt of Appeals of Georgia · 1915
- Avey v. Town of BrantNew York Court of Appeals · 1934
- Hartley v. SandfordSupreme Court of New Jersey · 1901
- State ex rel. Kabel v. Sewerage & Water BoardLouisiana Court of Appeal · 1962
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