Grime v. Borden

• Decision Date: 23 May 1896
• Citation: 166 Mass. 198,44 N.E. 216
• Parties: GRIME v. BORDEN (three cases).
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

166 Mass. 198
44 N.E. 216

GRIME
v.
BORDEN (three cases).

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Bristol.

May 23, 1896.

Report from superior court, Bristol county; Charles S. Lilley, Judge.

Three separate actions by George Grime, trustee, against William A. Borden. There were verdicts for plaintiff, and the cases were reported to the supreme judicial court. Judgments on the verdicts.

[166 Mass. 199]Jennings & Morton, for plaintiff.

John W. Cummings and Charles R. Cummings, for defendant.

FIELD, C.J.

These are three actions on the same agreement, all brought for the use and benefit of Mary A. Borden, to recover the sum of $100 a month for different periods of time, under the following clause of the agreement: “Fourth. Said husband shall pay to said wife, upon the execution of these presents, the sum of two hundred dollars in cash, and shall also, between the first and fifth days of each and every month hereafter, beginning with the first day of August, A.D.1892, pay to the said wife the sum of one hundred dollars, for the support and maintenance of herself, also for the support and maintenance of the said Elizabeth during her minority.” The writ in the first suit is dated on February 19, 1894, and the suit is to recover the balance due for the months from December, 1892, to December, 1893, inclusive. The writ in the second suit is dated on June 13, 1894, and the suit is to recover the payments due for three months from March, 1894, to June, 1894, inclusive. The writ in the third suit is dated October 15, 1894, and the suit is to recover the payments due for the months from July, 1894, to October, 1894, inclusive. At the time of the execution of this agreement, William A. Borden and Mary A. Borden were husband and wife, and had separated from each other, and were living apart, and they have continued to live apart ever since. Mrs. Borden has fully kept her part of the agreement, but Mr. Borden has not paid in full the $100 per month, according to the agreement. The child Elizabeth referred to in the agreement was born in February, 1875, and was therefore a minor at the time when the agreement was executed. She was married in October, 1893, and is now living with her husband, but until her marriage she lived with her mother.

It is said in Fox v. Davis, 113 Mass. 255, of an agreement on the part of the husband to pay money to a trustee for the support of his wife while she lives apart from him, that “the great weight of authority sustains the validity...