Bradley v. Fuller

• Citation: 118 Mass. 239
• Parties: Ira Bradley v. Lorin L. Fuller
• Decision Date: 03 September 1875
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

118 Mass. 239

Ira Bradley v. Lorin L. Fuller

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

September 3, 1875

Suffolk. Tort for fraudulent oral representations and conspiracy. The declaration contained three counts, the substance of which appears in the opinion. The defendant demurred, on the ground that the declaration did not state a legal cause of action. The Superior Court sustained the demurrer, and ordered judgment for the defendant, and the plaintiff appealed.

Judgment for the defendant.

W. A Field, for the defendant.

R. D Smith, for the plaintiff.

Colt J. Ames & Devens, JJ., absent.

OPINION

Colt

The material allegations of the first count now relied on are that the defendant orally represented to the plaintiff that a corporation, of which he was treasurer, and whose overdue note the plaintiff then held, owed no other debts and had no attachments upon its property; that this representation was fraudulently and falsely made for the purpose of inducing the plaintiff not to commence suit upon his note until the corporate property could be placed beyond the reach of attachment by the plaintiff; that all the property of the company was afterwards attached and sold on execution upon another debt; and that the plaintiff, induced by the representations not to enforce his claim by suit, lost his debt against the company.

The allegations of the third count do not differ in substance from those of the first, but state with more particularity that the plaintiff, by said representations, "was induced to forbear securing payment of his note by an attachment of said property, as he might and would have done but for said false representations." Both counts assume that the other debt on which the corporate property was taken was a valid debt of the company. The plaintiff does not rely on these counts to charge the defendant by reason of any representations concerning the character, conduct, credit ability, trade or dealings of the corporation; for such representations must be in writing, signed by the party to be charged. Gen. Sts. c. 105, § 4.

Under the law as laid down by this court, the facts stated in these counts do not show a legal cause of action, or that the plaintiff has suffered any legal damage. There is no attachment or attempt to attach on the part of the plaintiff alleged; it does not appear that, by reason of the alleged representations, he lost anything which he ever had. Taking these counts in the most favorable sense for the plaintiff they simply charge that the plaintiff, induced by the falsehood alleged, refrained from carrying into effect an intention to attach; and that another creditor did attach and apply the company property in payment of his debt. It must necessarily be uncertain whether the plaintiff would have attached the property and applied it to the payment of his debt if the alleged representations had not been made. In Lamb v. Stone, 11 Pick. 527, which was an action on the case for the fraud of the defendant in purchasing the personal property of the plaintiff's debtor and aiding the debtor to abscond, in order to...