Kelly v. Foley

188 N.E. 349, 284 Mass. 503, 1933 Mass. LEXIS 1154
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedDecember 1, 1933
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 188 N.E. 349 (Kelly v. Foley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kelly v. Foley, 188 N.E. 349, 284 Mass. 503, 1933 Mass. LEXIS 1154 (Mass. 1933).

Opinion

Wait, J.

This is an appeal from orders of an appellate division denying a petition to establish a report and dismissing a report.

Thomas Kelly, trustee, brought an action by trustee process in the Municipal Court of the City of Boston against Helen V. Foley on a promissory note and summoned The Atlantic National Bank of Boston, The First National Bank of Boston and The National Shawmut Bank of Boston as trustees. The First National Bank of Boston answered funds in the names of Helen V. Foley, Helen V. Foley, agent, and Helen V. Foley, trustee. On September 27, 1932, a petition was filed by Nora and Katheryn C. Donoghue claiming the funds standing in the name of Helen V. Foley, trustee, alleging ownership of such funds, praying that the attachment be discharged as to such funds and that the claim be sustained. On the same day Sewall W. Abbott and others, trustees under the will of John Brewster, filed their petition alleging ownership of the funds in The First National Bank of Boston standing in the name of Helen V. Foley, agent, and praying that the attachment as to these funds be discharged and their claim be sustained. The defendant was defaulted on October 3, 1932, when the action appeared on the trial fist. Defendant’s motion to discharge the trustee was denied. The claimants’ petitions were heard by a judge of the court on November 16 and 17, 1932. The judge reserved his decision. On November-18, 1932, at 9:50 a.m. the plaintiff discharged the trustees, and at ten o’clock judgment was entered for the [505]*505plaintiff on Ms note. On November 23, 1932, the claimants filed a motion that a finding on their claimants’ petitions be made as of Friday, November 18, 1932, at 9:30 a.m. The judge allowed the motion to be filed and allowed the motion. The plaintiff before argument filed requests for rulings of wMch the judge granted, (2) “The judgment entered by tMs honorable court was in conformity with the General Laws,” and (4) “The plaintiff as a matter of law has an absolute right to discharge the trustee at any time.” No objection nor request for report on the granting of these requests was made. The judge denied the other requests for rulings. On November 25,1932, the plaintiff duly claimed a report. A draft report setting out the foregoing was presented for Ms signature to the judge who refused to sign it; but signed a report contaimng, in addition, statements that on November 18, before the opening of the court at 9:30 a.m., the judge made findings establishing the claimants’ petitions and handed them to the assistant clerk who did not file them with the clerk until after 10 a.m. when, it appearing that the trustees had been discharged and the case gone to judgment, nothing further was done by the clerk with regard to the findings. The plaintiff contends that the judgment entered at 10. a.m. on November 18 was a final judgment and that, thereafter, the judge had no jurisdiction over the case. He further urges that since the judge ruled, without exception or request for report, that the plaintiff had an absolute right to discharge the trustee at any time and that the judgment entered was in conformity with the General Laws, those rulings have become the law of tMs case "and, as a result, establish Ms contention that the judgment is final.

The essential question for decision is whether the judgment entered put an end to authority of the court to act further, in the case. A preliminary question, however, is presented — whether the Appellate Division had jurisdiction to deal with the plaintiff’s petition for establishment of the draft report rejected unless as amended by the trial judge, and for any report. The question of jurisdiction may be raised by the court itself, and here the Appellate [506]*506Division did so. G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 231, § 108, provides: “Any party to a cause brought in the municipal court of the city of Boston . . . aggrieved by any ruling on a matter of law by a single justice, may, as of right, have the ruling reported for determination by the appellate division when the cause is otherwise ripe for judgment, or sooner by consent of the justice hearing the same.” The jurisdiction of the Appellate Division is, therefore, confined to questions of law raised before the case is ripe for judgment and does not extend to matters raised after the entry of a valid judgment. The validity of the judgment entered on November 18 is, thus, the test of the jurisdiction here. All that is challenged by the plaintiff’s petition or report took place after the entry of that judgment. He has mistaken his remedy, if the judgment is, as he contends it to be, a valid judgment. See Lynn Gas & Electric Co. v. Creditors National Clearing House, 235 Mass. 114, and Lynn Gas & Electric Co. v. Creditors National Clearing House, Inc. 237 Mass. 505.

The judgment, however, is not valid. The statute G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 235, § 2, and Rule 34 of the Municipal Court of the City of Boston (1932) provide that judgment in civil actions and proceedings ripe for judgment shall be entered by the clerk, unless the party entitled thereto otherwise requests in writing and the court otherwise orders, at c ten o’clock in the forenoon of Friday of each week; or at any time on notice and motion in a case ripe for judgment. As stated in the case of the Lynn Gas & Electric Co. v. Creditors National Clearing House, Inc., just cited (237 Mass. 505, 507), it is not easy to give a definition universally applicable to “ripe for judgment.” One sufficiently broad is there quoted from American Wood Working Machinery Co. v. Furbush, 193 Mass. 455, 457: “when, under the last entry, the case seems to have been brought to a final determination, and everything seems to have been done that ought to be done before the entry of a final adjudication upon the rights of the parties.” Within that definition the case before us was not ripe for judgment. See Norcross v. Crabtree, 161 Mass. 55. In Bennett v. Powell, ante, 246, 248, more than a year had elapsed after entry [507]*507of judgment and thereby a further statutory provision had become applicable. The record before the clerk at ten o’clock on Friday, November 18, it is true, showed a default of the defendant in an action on a promissory note and the discharge of the trustees, but it also showed a hearing on adverse claimants’ petitions in which decisions were reserved. If the adverse claimants were parties, there was no final adjudication upon their rights. It was not for the clerk to decide that they were not parties; or that the discharge of the trustees by the plaintiff without approval by the court precluded action by the court with reference to the adverse claimants which, though not entitling them to a judgment, could, nevertheless, establish rights in them.

An adverse claimant’s right in the trustee process is wholly the creation of statute. He is made a party to the proceeding. Boylen v. Young, 6 Allen, 582. Fuller v. Storer, 111 Mass. 281. Gifford v. Rockett, 119 Mass. 71. Hubbard v. Lamburn, 189 Mass. 296. Zani v. Phandor Co. 281 Mass. 139, 146, 149. He has no right to a judgment in his favor against the trustee, the defendant, or another claimant, or, except for costs, against the plaintiff. Gifford v. Rockett, 119 Mass. 71. Fuller v. Storer, 111 Mass. 281. See Peck Brothers & Co. v. Stratton, 118 Mass. 406. Yet he has a right to an adjudication of the matter of his claim, an adjudication which will become res judicata

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Vick v. Greco
1989 Mass. App. Div. 198 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1989)
Rood v. Tolley
1988 Mass. App. Div. 62 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1988)
Mason v. Perlman
1986 Mass. App. Div. 181 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1986)
Chong v. Ruffini
1986 Mass. App. Div. 105 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1986)
Powers v. Caplan
1985 Mass. App. Div. 14 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1985)
Coen Marine Equipment, Inc. v. Kurker
1983 Mass. App. Div. 221 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1983)
Sechrest v. Safiol
1980 Mass. App. Div. 133 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1980)
Comfort Air Systems, Inc. v. Cacopardo
346 N.E.2d 835 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1976)
Klinkner Signs, Inc. v. Goldman
26 Mass. App. Dec. 198 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1963)
Nisby v. Murch
24 Mass. App. Dec. 32 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1962)
Strang v. Marifiote
12 Mass. App. Dec. 91 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1956)
Doyle v. Wilcox
9 Mass. App. Dec. 11 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1955)
Weinberg v. Leyton School of Dental Laboratory Technology, Inc.
6 Mass. App. Dec. 89 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1953)
Joyce v. Boston Insurance
6 Mass. App. Dec. 33 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1953)
MacLeod v. Cities Service Oil Co.
15 Mass. App. Div. 25 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1950)
Knapp v. Lenois
14 Mass. App. Div. 221 (Massachusetts District Court, 1949)
McAllister v. N. E. Colonial Furniture Co.
13 Mass. App. Div. 101 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1948)
Auto Owners Finance Co. v. Venstrom
10 Mass. App. Div. 207 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1945)
Jordan Marsh Co. v. Maloof
10 Mass. App. Div. 165 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1945)
Leffler v. Todd
55 N.E.2d 767 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1944)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
188 N.E. 349, 284 Mass. 503, 1933 Mass. LEXIS 1154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kelly-v-foley-mass-1933.