Regan v. Baldwin

• Decision Date: 08 April 1879
• Citation: 126 Mass. 485
• Parties: John B. Regan v. Aaron C. Baldwin
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

126 Mass. 485

John B. Regan v. Aaron C. Baldwin

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

April 8, 1879

Argued November 12, 1878

Suffolk. Contract. The declaration alleged that the plaintiff and the defendant executed an indenture, whereby the defendant leased to the plaintiff the lower floor of a building on Essex Street in Boston, and the cellar under the same, for the term of ten years from October 1, 1867; that by the terms of the lease, a copy of which was annexed, the defendant was to pay the plaintiff a certain rent monthly "except only in case of fire or other casualties," and to keep the premises in repair, "reasonable use and wear, and damage by accidental fire or other inevitable accidents only excepted;" that the lease also contained the following clause: "Provided always, that in case the premises, or any part thereof, shall, during said term, be destroyed or damaged by fire, or other unavoidable casualty so that the same shall be thereby rendered unfit for use and habitation, then, and in such case, the rent hereinafter reserved, or a just and proportionate part thereof, according to the nature and extent of the injury sustained, shall be suspended or abated until said premises shall have been put in proper condition for use and habitation by the said lessor, or these presents shall be thereby determined and ended at the election of the said lessor or his legal representatives."

The declaration further alleged that the building on the premises was burned and injured by fire on May 30, 1873, and the store and cellar, leased to the plaintiff, rendered unfit for use and habitation; that the cellar was not put, by the lessor in suitable condition and repair for occupancy, use and habitation for the space of one year and longer; and the defendant, though often requested, refused to do so; that the lease was not determined and ended by the defendant, or by any other person having authority so to do; that the plaintiff had kept and performed the covenants and agreements on his part to be kept and performed, and that the defendant has not kept and performed his part of said indenture; that the defendant refused to abate and suspend said rent, or a just and proportionate part thereof, but exacted of, and the plaintiff has been obliged by the defendant to pay, the rent in full, as reserved in said indenture, which the plaintiff did under protest, in order to save his estate and business.

The defendant demurred to the declaration, assigning as cause of demurrer that the matters therein set forth were insufficient to enable the plaintiff to maintain the action.

The Superior Court sustained the demurrer, and ordered judgment for the defendant; and the plaintiff appealed to this court.

Judgment affirmed.

P. A. Collins, for the plaintiff.

E. W. Hutchins, for the defendant.

Lord, J. Colt, Morton & Soule, JJ., absent.

OPINION

Lord, J.

In this case the demurrer was properly sustained. The plaintiff's declaration sets forth no cause of action which entitles him to recover. The amount which he seeks to reclaim was a sum which he voluntarily paid; he paid it under no mistake of fact, and it has long been held that money so paid cannot be recovered back.

There is an early case, Moses v. Macpherlan, 1 W Bl. 219, in which it was held that money paid, even under a judgment of a court of competent...