First Baptist Soc. in Brookfield v. Dexter

• Decision Date: 27 November 1906
• Citation: 79 N.E. 342,193 Mass. 187
• Parties: FIRST BAPTIST SOC. IN BROOKFIELD et al. v. DEXTER et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

193 Mass. 187

79 N.E. 342

FIRST BAPTIST SOC. IN BROOKFIELD et al.

v.DEXTER et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Worcester.

Nov. 27, 1906.

Appeal from Superior Court, Worcester County.

Suit by the First Baptist Society in Brookfield and another against J. P. Dexter and another. From a decree for complainants, defendant Charles E. Hood appeals. Affirmed.

Chas. E. Hood, in pro. per.

Henry E. Cottle, for appellees.

RUGG, J.

This is a suit in equity brought by the first named plaintiff, a religious society incorporated by an act passed on the 17th of June, 1800 (see chapter 239, p. 160, Acts 1904), and William F. Hayward, claiming to be its treasurer.

The bill was filed on February 5, 1906, and alleged that on the first Monday of January, 1906, a judgment was entered in the superior court in favor of the plaintiff society against the Spencer Savings Bank for the sum of $500, without costs; that upon demand by the defendant Dexter, acting for the defendant Hood, who claimed to be the treasurer of the plaintiff society, the savings bank refused to pay the amount called for by the execution, and that thereupon the execution was placed in the hands of the defendant Snell, a deputy sheriff, who collected the amount due thereon from the savings bank, and that contemporaneously with the collection of said execution, there was handed to the defendant Snell a written notice informing him that the plaintiff Hayward was the lawful treasurer of the plaintiff society, and the only person authorized to receive the money so collected; that thereafter the defendants, Hood and Dexter, wrongfully, without authority and against the rights of the plaintiffs, caused an action to be brought in the superior court, in the name of the plaintiff society against Chamberlain as the sheriff of the county of Worcester (who is joined as a defendant in the bill), to compel the payment of the money collected by the defendant Snell. The prayers were for a determination as to whether Hayward or Hood was the lawful treasurer of the plaintiff society, and as to the person entitled to receive the money collected by Snell, and for injunctions against the defendants Dexter and Hood from prosecuting the suit against Chamberlain, from using the name of the society in other proceedings, and from collecting or receiving said money. The defendants Dexter and Hood filed several answers, setting out among other allegations the claim that the defendant Hood was the legal treasurer of the plaintiff society and denying that the plaintiff Hayward was such treasurer. The other defendants duly answered and issue was joined.

A hearing was had before a justice of the superior court, who found among other matters not now material, that the plaintiff Hayward was duly elected treasurer at a legal meeting of the said First Baptist Society in Brookfield, on April 28, 1905, that he continued to be to the date of the decree the lawful treasurer of the society and that the defendants Dexter and Hood had no authority to collect or receive the money in the hands of the defendant Snell, nor to commence litigation in the name of the plaintiff society, and that the defendant Hood wrongfully claimed to be its treasurer. In other words, it is found that before the demand made...