Colburn v. Morrill

• Decision Date: 31 March 1875
• Citation: 117 Mass. 262
• Parties: H. F. Colburn v. Charles Morrill
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

117 Mass. 262

H. F. Colburn v. Charles Morrill

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

March 31, 1875

Argued November 4, 1874

Essex. Contract for rent. Trial in the Superior Court before Lord J., who allowed a bill of exceptions in substance as follows:

The plaintiff offered evidence tending to show that on February 6, 1868, he leased orally to the defendant three rooms, in a certain building in Lawrence, consisting of a front room bedroom, and kitchen, for $ 10 per month; that the defendant went into the occupancy of the rooms, and paid the rent in full each month as it accrued up to May 6, 1868; that the defendant remained in the occupancy of the rooms under the oral lease until October 6, 1868, when he left, owing the plaintiff for five months' rent; and that the plaintiff had never terminated his tenancy in the rooms. He further testified that he took certain goods out of the attic, which he testified that he never let to the tenant; that when he took the key of the attic, he took the key of the front outer door of the house for a special purpose and subsequently returned it, and denied that he locked the front room or ever in any mode interfered with the use of it by the tenant.

The defendant's counsel, in opening, stated that the defence to the plaintiff's suit rested on the following facts: On February 6, 1868, he leased orally of the plaintiff a tenement consisting of the said three rooms and an attic room, for $ 10 per month; soon after went into possession and occupancy of the four rooms, and paid the rent for the same monthly, at the rate of $ 10 per month, up to May 6 following. On May 9, three days after he paid the previous month's rent, the plaintiff came into the tenement, where was then only the defendant's wife, and told her that he should not allow a Mrs. Jenkins to come into the tenement; that she replied that she must have her as she was soon to be confined; and then he took the defendant's goods and effects out of the attic room and placed them in the attic entry, and locked the doors to the attic and front room, forbade the defendant's wife to enter the same, and carried away with him the keys, and ever after kept them; when the plaintiff came in he was in a state of intoxication, and the defendant's wife was afraid of him and could not get him out of the house, he remaining from nine o'clock A. M. or thereabouts till nearly noon. The defendant had two conversations with him very soon after, and asked him why he had locked up the attic and front rooms in his tenement, and the plaintiff replied that he would have no cooking in those rooms. The defendant replied that he was not going to have any cooking in those rooms; that his wife was soon to be confined, and that her nurse would sleep in the front room for a short time; that he hired those rooms with the others, and must have them, and told the plaintiff that if he refused to restore those rooms to him, he should refuse to pay for the two he was then occupying till he did; and that he refused to allow them to occupy the said two rooms. The defendant left the tenement on September 6, 1868, and, owing to the continued sickness of his wife and child, could not remove from the premises before.

The defendant's counsel contended that these facts, if proved, would amount to an eviction of the defendant from a portion of the leased premises, and that an eviction from a part of the leased premises would suspend the whole...