Noyes v. Bragg

Decision Date09 January 1915
PartiesNOYES v. BRAGG et al.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

220 Mass. 106
107 N.E. 669

NOYES
v.
BRAGG et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Franklin.

Jan. 9, 1915.


Appeal from Superior Court, Franklin County; Richard W. Irwin, Judge.

Bill by German P. Noyes against John W. Bragg and others. Decree for complainant, and defendant Bragg appeals. Modified and affirmed.


Wm. [220 Mass. 112]A. Davenport, of Greenfield, for appellant.

Lyman W. Griswold, of Greenfield, for appellee.


[220 Mass. 107]LORING, J.

This case comes up on an appeal from a final decree entered on a master's report to which no exceptions were taken. The evidence before the master was not before the superior court and is not before us.

The facts found by the master are in substance as follows: On November 17, 1909, the defendant made a written agreement with the plaintiff and his two sons to sell to them a piece of land in Greenfield ‘known as the ‘Leonard Farm,” which was therein bounded and described. The price was $1,300, $100 of which was paid at the making of the agreement and the balance was to be paid in monthly installments. The plaintiff and his sons entered under that agreement and paid the sum of $675 towards the purchase money. About three years later (in the autumn of 1912) the plaintiff's sons surrendered their rights in the contract to their father, who alone continued to live upon the farm. The plaintiff relinquished his rights under the old agreement on the making of ‘an entirely new oral contract’ which he made with the defendant. This new contract was afterwards reduced into writing. This writing was in these words:

‘Greenfield, Mass., April 1, 1913.

‘Agreement between J. W. Bragg and German P. Noyse. Said Noyse agrees to pay said Bragg $1100, with interest from date, for the Leonard place so called, and is to pay $25 each month until paid in full; also insurance and taxes. In witness thereof we have set our hand and seal.

J. W. Bragg.

‘G. P. Noyse.’

The plaintiff continued to occupy the farm under the new contract. He made payments under the new contract amounting to $200. In October, 1913, he offered to make payment of a $25 installment. The defendant refused to accept the money. At that time the plaintiff was not in default in any payment called for by the contract. ‘In November, 1913,’ the defendant conveyed the farm to [220 Mass. 108]Queenie L. Purrington, one of the defendants in this suit. Queenie L. Purrington was the wife of the defendant's son. She was a volunteer under her husband. Her husband (as the master found) took with full knowledge of the fact that there was an outstanding contract between the defendant and the plaintiff. In fact he had tried to buy the farm from the plaintiff and on the plaintiff refusing to sell it to him he undertook to get a conveyance from the defendant in fraud of the plaintiff's rights.

The defendant demurred to the bill and filed a motion to dismiss. A final decree in favor of the plaintiff was entered in the superior court. By the final decree the demurrer was overruled, the motion to dismiss was disallowed and the plaintiff was given the relief he asked for. The decree is set forth in the note.1

[220 Mass. 109]One only among the many objections made by the defendant is well taken...

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