Morgan v. Steele

• Decision Date: 29 June 1922
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
• Parties: HUGH L. MORGAN v. JOHN W. STEELE, trustee, & another.

242 Mass. 217

HUGH L. MORGAN v. JOHN W. STEELE, trustee, & another.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

June 29, 1922

May 16, 1922.

Present: RUGG, C.

J., DE COURCY CROSBY, CARROLL, & JENNEY, JJ.

Equity Pleading and Practice, Decree, Review, Appeal. Jurisdiction. After the entry of a final decree in a suit in equity in the Superior

Court, that court except on a bill of review, no longer has jurisdiction to entertain a motion that the suit be reopened and reviewed because at the hearing important witnesses for the defendant unavoidably were absent.

Whether a case when reached for trial shall be heard or shall be continued for hearing at a later time, rests in sound judicial discretion.

After a hearing finding of facts and the entering of a final decree for the plaintiff in a suit in equity in the Superior Court, the defendant moved that the suit be reopened and reviewed because of the alleged unavoidable absence at the trial of material witnesses for the defence.

The judge, without passing upon the legal questions presented but assuming them all in favor of the defendants, heard and denied the motion on its merits on the ground that nothing appeared which would have changed the conclusions reached in the findings of fact. Upon an appeal from the denial of the motion, it was held that no error of law was shown.

BILL IN EQUITY, filed in the Superior Court on September 21, 1921, to enjoin the foreclosure of a mortgage of an automobile and for the rescission of the mortgage note and mortgage on the ground of fraud.

In the Superior Court, the suit was heard by Sanderson, J., who filed a memorandum of his findings and by whose order a decree for the plaintiff was entered. The defendant John W. Steele appealed from the decree on November 14, 1921. On December 8, 1921, upon motion by the plaintiff, an order was issued directing that the appeal be entered in this court on or before December 22, 1921. On December 16, 1921, the defendant filed a motion that the "case may be reopened and reviewed" because of the alleged unavoidable absence of material witnesses for the defence at the time of the hearing. The motion was heard by Sanderson, J., who made the following order: "Without passing upon the defendant's right to have the petition for a rehearing passed upon after the entry of a final decree, the court denies the motion and petition for the reason that the statements of witnesses in the affidavit annexed thereto, if offered in evidence, would not change the conclusions reached in the finding of facts." The defendant John W. Steele appealed.

The case was submitted on briefs.

F. T. Crommett, for the defendant John W.

Steele.

R. W. Frost & M.

B. Breath, for the plaintiff.

RUGG, C.J. This suit in equity was heard in the Superior Court. A finding of facts was made by...