James v. Cummings

• Decision Date: 05 January 1882
• Citation: 132 Mass. 78
• Parties: William F. James v. Solomon Cummings
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

132 Mass. 78

William F. James v. Solomon Cummings

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

January 5, 1882

Argued October 27, 1881

Bristol.

Exceptions overruled.

W. C Parker, Jr. & A. B. Collins, for the defendant.

E. L Barney & C. T. Bonney, for the plaintiff, were not called upon.

Devens J. Morton & Allen JJ., absent.

OPINION

Devens, J.

This is an action for board of Cummings and his wife, during her lifetime, and for labor and services upon his land. The land upon which the alleged service was rendered had been purchased with the money of Cummings, and the deed had been put by James in the name of his wife, who was the daughter of Cummings. Before the date of the present suit, a bill in equity had been brought by Cummings against James and his wife, by which he sought to have the title thereto placed in his own name. To this bill James and his wife had answered that the land had been purchased by Cummings's money, but that the deed had been made to the wife of James in consideration of support which had been furnished to Cummings and his wife, and in expectation of further continued support. Upon the trial of the equity cause, it was found that Cummings never intended to have the land conveyed to the wife of James, or to deprive himself of his legal possession and enjoyment thereof; and a decree was entered that the wife of James should convey the land to Cummings, and that James should join in the deed. This decree has been complied with. At the trial of the case now before us, the court, at the request of Cummings, ruled that the decree was conclusive as to his title; that the deed was not put in the name of the wife of James by his consent; and that the land was not the land of Mrs. James burdened with a trust for his support. Cummings now objects that certain evidence was admitted tending to show that board and lodging were furnished in consideration of the deed, and that the equity case decided between the parties made such evidence inadmissible.

Evidence which may fail to prove one proposition may be invoked to prove another, even if the first proposition is conclusively decided against the party seeking to maintain it. It was settled between these parties that the land was the property of Cummings, but declarations admitted as part of his conversation or of conversation in his presence which was otherwise relevant were properly so admitted, even if they had some tendency to show a contract different from that here declared on, and which James, in view of the equity suit, could not here claim ever to have existed. James was seeking to establish that Cummings and his wife boarded with him on the land which belonged to Cummings, (although then in the name of Mrs. James,) and that work and labor were done by him on the land on a contract express or implied that the board and labor were to be paid for. This was a different inquiry...