Saulnier v. Benfield
| Decision Date | 28 November 1928 |
| Citation | 265 Mass. 262 |
| Parties | TERESA SAULNIER v. ALBERT J. BENFIELD. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
October 22, 1928.
Present: CROSBY PIERCE, CARROLL, WAIT, & SANDERSON, JJ.
Equity Jurisdiction, Accounting. Equity Pleading and Practice Master: findings; Appeal.
A master, to whom was referred a suit in equity for an accounting as to sums paid by the plaintiff to the defendant in transactions relating to mortgages of personal property and for a discharge of mortgages, after findings as to transfers and payments by the plaintiff to the defendant for which no credit was given by the defendant, found that, about six months before the suit was brought, a compromise was agreed upon between the parties, by the terms of which the plaintiff was to pay the defendant $900; that the plaintiff had paid that sum and that the defendant had given credit therefor but that the defendant had refused to discharge the mortgages on which he made claim in the suit; that the plaintiff had overpaid him about $2,943; and, as a conclusion, found that the plaintiff was entitled to a discharge of all the mortgages and that there was due him from the defendant the amount so overpaid. The evidence was not reported. A final decree in accordance with the findings was entered and the defendant appealed, contending that, in view of the finding that the parties agreed upon a compromise under which the plaintiff paid the defendant $900, the final decree should be limited to the discharge of the outstanding mortgages. Held that
(1) There was nothing in the findings to show that the amount found due by the master on the date of the filing of the bill was included in the agreement of compromise which, the master found, never was carried out by the defendant;
(2) As nothing in the report showed that the findings were inconsistent with or contrary to one another or plainly wrong, the final decree must be affirmed.
BILL IN EQUITY, filed in the Superior Court on July 1, 1926, and described in the opinion.
The suit was referred to a master. Material facts found by the master are stated in the opinion. By order of Greenhalge, J., the final decree described in the opinion was entered. The defendant appealed.
The case was submitted on briefs. J.J. Matthews, for the defendant.
J.W. Vaughan, for the plaintiff.
This is a bill in equity for an accounting. The prayers of the bill are that the defendant be ordered to pay the plaintiff the amount found due, and to discharge certain mortgages executed to him by the plaintiff. The case was referred to a master. As the evidence is not reported his findings must stand unless upon the report they are mutually inconsistent or plainly wrong. Glover v. Waltham Laundry Co. 235 Mass. 330 , 334. Simpkins v. Old Colony Trust Co. 254 Mass. 576 , 580. Weiss v. Newman, 255 Mass. 235 .
The master made the following and other findings: that the plaintiff was in the business of buying and selling lodging houses in Boston; that for about twenty-five years the defendant had been in the business of lending money on chattel mortgages, particularly upon household furnishings; that from early in 1915 up to 1923 the...
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