Inhabitants of South Scituate v. Inhabitants of Hanover

75 Mass. 420

• Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
• Decided: October 15, 1857
• Status: Published

Opinion

Bigelow, J.

There is nothing in the facts of this case from which a promise by the defendants, either express or implied, can be inferred to pay the plaintiffs the money sought to be recovered in this action. It is true that the defendants were legally liable, under the resolve of the legislature of May 31st 1856, to pay one half of the expenses of the commission appointed to establish the boundary line between the towns of South Scituate and Hanover. But this was a liability either to the commissioners or to the Commonwealth, and not to the plaintiffs. There is no provision in the resolve, authorizing or requiring the plaintiffs to pay the whole expenses, and rendering the defendants liable for one half thereof to the plaintiffs. It was a voluntary payment by the plaintiffs of a debt due from the defendants. Such payment gives no cause of action. It falls within the well settled rule of law, that the payment of the debt of another raises no assumpsit against the person whose debt is paid, and no action will lie by reason of such payment, unless a request, either express or implied, to make the payment is proved. The law does not permit the liability of a party for a debt to one person to be shifted so as to make him debtor to another without his consent. Winsor v. Savage, 9 Met. 348.

Judgment for the defendants.