Kennedy v. Cochrane

• Decision Date: 24 March 1876
• Parties: ISAAC KENNEDY v. SAMUEL COCHRANE.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

65 Me. 594

ISAAC KENNEDY v. SAMUEL COCHRANE.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

March 24, 1876

1875.

ON FACTS AGREED.

ASSUMPSIT on account annexed.

The plaintiff was an innkeeper in St. Stephen's, New Brunswick, duly licensed, under the statute of that province to sell liquor as a retail dealer; the liquor sued for was sold at retail by the plaintiff to the defendant, who then was, and is now, a resident of Calais, Maine; the liquor sold was not for re-sale, but was for the defendant's own use the items of the account were charged by the plaintiff to the defendant, who has never paid the account nor any part of it the items were all for glasses and pints of liquor, except the first item which was to balance of old account $2.01, which old account was for liquor.

Acts of New Brunswick on the subject, make a part of the case.

" N. B. Act of assembly 1873, c. 10, § 1. No person shall directly or indirectly barter or sell any liquors without license for that purpose first obtained."

" Sect. 16. No innkeeper or tavern keeper, who shall sell upon trust or credit, any liquors, mixed or unmixed, to any person, shall have any remedy against the said person, his executors or administrators, either in law or equity, for the recovery thereof."

If the action is maintainable, the defendant to be defaulted; otherwise, the plaintiff to be nonsuit.

J. Granger & G. F. Granger, for the plaintiff.

G. A. Curran, for the defendant.

APPLETON C. J.

This is an action of assumpsit for liquors sold the defendant by the plaintiff, a licensed innholder in St. Stephen's, New Brunswick. The sale was by the glass or pint, and charged at the time of delivery.

By an act of the general assembly of New Brunswick, passed in 1873, c. 10, § 16, it was enacted that " no innkeeper, or tavern keeper, who shall sell upon trust or credit, any liquors, mixed or unmixed, to any person, shall have any remedy against the said person, his executors or administrators either in law or equity, for the recovery thereof; and if any bill, bond, note, mortgage or other security or conveyance shall be made and delivered, the consideration, or any part of the consideration of which, shall be proved to be for liquors sold, the same shall be taken to be fraudulent and void in all courts of justice," & c.; " and if any pawn or pledge shall be left, by any person, with any tavern or innkeeper, it shall be lawful for any justice of the peace of the county in...