Comins v. Turner's Falls Co.

• Decision Date: 23 October 1885
• Citation: 3 N.E. 304,140 Mass. 146
• Parties: COMINS v. TURNER'S FALLS CO.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

140 Mass. 146

3 N.E. 304

COMINS

v.TURNER'S FALLS CO.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

Filed October 23, 1885.

This was a complaint for flowage of land under Pub.St. c. 190. The case was heard in the superior court, and exceptions taken to the rulings of the presiding judge. The point decided appears in the opinion.

Conant & Conant, for plaintiff.

Austin De Wolfe, for defendant.

MORTON, C.J.

It is the rule, settled by numerous decisions, that exceptions taken in cases pending in the superior court cannot be heard in this court until the case has been finally disposed of or is ripe for judgment in the court below. Interlocutory judgments or rulings cannot be heard until after a final disposition of the case in the superior court. Boyce v. Wheeler, 133 Mass. 554, and cases cited; Crompton Carpet Works v. Worcester, 119 Mass. 375.

This rule applies to the case before us. In Marshall v. Merritt, 13 Allen, 274, which, like this case, was a complaint under the mill act, exceptions were taken to a ruling at the hearing upon the question whether a warrant should issue to impanel a jury to assess the complainant's damages, and were entered in this court before the jury trial was had; and it was held that they would be dismissed as prematurely entered, because there had been no final determination of the case in the superior court. Exceptions dismissed.