Opinion

Miller v. Burt

  • 196 Mass. 395
  • 82 N.E. 39
  • 1907 Mass. LEXIS 1114
Court
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Filed
Oct 16, 1907
Status
Published
Author
Sheldon
On the bench
Sheldon
Cited by
7 cases
Authority
More cited than 81.6%

The opinion

Sheldon, J.

The demurrer rightly was sustained; and, as the plaintiff apparently did not desire to make any amendment, the bill properly was dismissed.

I. It is abundantly settled by the decisions of this court that the memorandum signed by the defendant was not sufficient to take the case out of the statute of frauds. It utterly failed to describe or identify in any manner, or by any reference, the land intended to be conveyed. Whelan v. Sullivan, 102 Mass. 204 . There was no such fraud or part performance averred as would entitle the plaintiff to avoid the statutory bar. Glass v. Hulbert, 102 Mass. 24 . Harrell v. Sonnabend, 191 Mass. 310 . Nor was there any averment that the land which was 'the subject of the bargain was the only land owned by the defendant, so as to bring *397 the case within the rule stated in Doherty v. Hill, 144 Mass. 465, 467 . See the cases there cited.

2. It sufficiently appears by the bill that the agreement between the parties was an oral one, and that no written memorandum except the one annexed to the bill was relied on by the plaintiff. This affords ground for demurrer in equity. Campbell v. Brown, 129 Mass. 23 . Ahrend v. Odiorne, 118 Mass. 261 . It may be that if there had been no demurrer and if the statute of frauds had been set up in avoidance of the action (see Harrell v. Sonnabend, 191 Mass. 310 ; Livingston v. Murphy, 187 Mass. 315, 318 ), the plaintiff might have put in oral evidence to show that the defendant owned no other land than that bargained for; but no such case is now before us.

The decree sustaining the demurrer and dismissing the bill must be affirmed.

So ordered.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

A word about cookies

We need a few to keep you signed in and the library working. The rest help us see which pages people use and where they get stuck. They stay off unless you say yes.