Commonwealth v. Williams

• Citation: 127 Mass. 285
• Parties: Commonwealth v. Charles L. Williams
• Decision Date: 23 July 1879
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

127 Mass. 285

Commonwealth v. Charles L. Williams

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

July 23, 1879

Suffolk. Indictment on the Gen. Sts. c. 161, § 59 charging that the defendant, on December 17, 1877, at Boston "unlawfully and fraudulently did convey in mortgage to one Robert R. Perkins certain real estate situated in said Boston" (describing it by metes and bounds); "that said Perkins then and there did pay to said Williams for said conveyance a valuable consideration, to wit, the sum of one hundred and forty-eight dollars and ninety-eight cents; that there was then and there an incumbrance existing upon said real estate, to wit, a mortgage, by virtue of a deed of mortgage from said Williams to one Thomas C. Bacon, bearing date the fifteenth day of September, in said year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven; that said deed of mortgage had not been before said seventeenth day of said December, nor was it then and there at the time he, said Williams, did convey said real estate as aforesaid to said Perkins, nor at any time theretofore, in any way discharged or released; that said Williams, then and there well knowing said incumbrance then to exist on said real estate, did not before said consideration was paid as aforesaid, make known in any manner to said Perkins the existence thereof; but then and there did unlawfully and fraudulently convey said real estate to said Perkins, in manner and form as aforesaid, without, before said consideration was paid as aforesaid, informing him, said Perkins, of the existence and nature of said incumbrance, so far as he, said Williams, then and there had knowledge thereof."

At the trial in the Superior Court, before Colburn, J., to show the incumbrance upon the estate, the government put in evidence a mortgage deed of the estate, given by the defendant to Thomas C. Bacon, dated September 15, 1877, and recorded September 19, 1877, purporting to secure two notes, given by the defendant to Bacon, one for $ 2500, the other for $ 5000. To show the conveyance to Perkins, the government put in evidence a mortgage deed to him of said real estate, dated December 17, 1877, and recorded December 18, 1877, and a note to Perkins for $ 148.98, secured thereby.

It appeared in evidence that the defendant owed Perkins about $ 121, for painting a house; that an action had been brought against him by Perkins on this claim, and the defendant had been arrested; that the note and...