Warner v. Bacon

74 Mass. 397
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedSeptember 15, 1857
StatusPublished

This text of 74 Mass. 397 (Warner v. Bacon) 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
Warner v. Bacon, 74 Mass. 397 (Mass. 1857).

Opinion

Metcalf, J.

The judge rightly excluded evidence of the four matters of damage which the plaintiff offered to prove. Without inquiring whether they would, under any form of declaration, have been legal grounds of damage, it is sufficient for the decision of this case, that they were not the necessary consequences of the defendant’s breach of agreement, which are implied by law; and were not alleged in the declaration. Nor were they consequences which (in the language sometimes used by judges) “ in all probability ” might follow, or would be “ very likely to follow,” from that breach. See Richardson v. Mellish, 2 Bing. 239; Goslin v. Corry, 7 Man. & Gr. 346; Ferrer v. Beale, 1 Ld. Raym. 692 ; 1 Chit. Pl. (6th Amer. ed.) 370, 441; 2 Greenl. Ev. § 254. “ Mere collateral damage,” says Holroyd, J., “ must be stated in the declaration, in order to. entitle the plaintiff to give it in evidence, lest otherwise the defendant might be taken by surprise.” Battley v. Faulkner, 3 B. & Ald. 294. And this rule of the common law is not changed by the practice act of 1852, c. 312. Baldwin v. Western Railroad, 4 Gray, 336.

[401]*401The judge also ruled, that the plaintiff “was to be limited to such damages as he had sustained up to the date of his writ.” And this is the general rule of law. Pilfold’s case, 10 Co. 117. Com. Dig. Damages, D. Pierce v. Woodward, 6 Pick. 206. There are, however, exceptions to the rule. And the question now is, whether the damage sustained by the plaintiff, after the date of his writ, from the defendant’s • omission to convey to him the Egremont estate, is within the rule, or is an exception to it. There is a compilation of most of the decisions on this subject in Sedgwick on Damages, c. 3, and Mayne on Damages, 33-38. In the latter book it is said, that “ damages arising subsequent to action brought, or even to the date of verdict, may be taken into consideration, when they are the natural and necessary result of the act complained of, and where they do not themselves constitute a new cause of action.” “ On the other hand, where the damages subsequent to the commencement of the action are not the necessary result of the alleged wrong, or where they might be the foundation of a fresh action, they cannot be included in the verdict of the jury.” The application of these rules to particular cases, like the application of other rules of law, which seem very plain, is often very difficult. We find no adjudged case which, if we were to regard it as a binding authority, would be decisive of the case at bar.

Our judgment is, that the continued withholding of a conveyance of the Egremont estate, after the 28th of January (the date of the writ) till the 11th of May, when the conveyance was made, is not a damage recoverable in this action. We think the case is more analogous to those in which damage sustained after action brought has been held not to be recoverable, than to those in which it has been held that it may be recovered.

In Hambleton v. Veere, 2 Saund. 169, the declaration was for the defendant’s procuring the plaintiff’s apprentice to depart from his service, and for loss of that service for the residue (four years) of the term of apprenticeship. Judgment was arrested, because the jury assessed damages generally, as declared for; the court saying the plaintiff “ ought to have recovered damages for the loss of service until the exhibiting of the bill only, and [402]*402no more.” See other like cases in the notes, by Williams and others, to the principal case, and also the opinion of Battle, J., in Moore v. Love, 3 Jones N. C. 215. In Powers v. Ware, 4 Pick. 106, which was an action of covenant on an indenture of apprenticeship, brought before the expiration of the apprenticeship, for not maintaining the apprentice, it was decided that damages could be recovered only to the date of the writ. The reason given was, “ for aught we know, the defendant may be ready to perform his covenant in future.” And it was said by Littledale, J., that, in the case in Saunders, the future damage could not be assessed, inasmuch as the apprentice might return.” Hodsoll v. Stallebrass, 3 P. & Dav. 203. These reasons seem as applicable to this case as to those.

The same rule of damages is applied to actions for an obstruction, which may be temporary, of a stream of water, of a way, or of light and air. Duncan v. Markley, Harper, 276. Cole v. Sprowl, 35 Maine, 161. Blunt v. McCormick, 3 Denio, 283. But if the obstruction be permanent, so that the plaintiff can no more have the flow of a stream, or the enjoyment of a way, or light or air, then all the damages which he sustains from the destruction of his rights are recoverable. Troy v. Cheshire Railroad, 3 Foster, 83. And if this defendant had conveyed the estate to a third person, before this action was brought, and thus made himself unable to convey it afterwards, the plaintiff would have been entitled to all the damages sustained by the loss of the estate. But the facts of the case show only a temporary withholding of the plaintiff’s rights, for which, as in the cases above cited, damages have been held recoverable only to the time of action commenced.

It might have been wise in the defendant, if he had not objected to the recovery of damage sustained by the plaintiff between the date of his writ and the day when the conveyance was made. In Goslin v. Corry, 7 Man. & Gr. 345, where a defendant, on the trial of an action'for a libel, permitted evidence to be given of damage caused after action brought, Tindal, C. J. said: “ By permitting this evidence to be given, the defendant may possibly have escaped a second action brought x [403]*403against him. It was therefore far from an impolitic thing to allow damages to be assessed for the whole cause of complaint in one action.” Exceptions overruled.

The plaintiff then brought a second action in the court oí common pleas, on the same agreement, to recover the special damages which accrued to him between the date of the first writ and the 11th of May 1855, and set forth the same breach, but alleged specially in his declaration the four items of damage which he attempted to prove at the first trial.

The defendant in his answer alleged, 1st. The former judgment ; 2d. Performance of the agreement by the defendant, and nonperformance by the plaintiff; 3d. That the defendant was induced to make the agreement by false and fraudulent representations of the plaintiff as to the value, condition and incumbrances of the estate in Brooklyn, by reason of which the defendant had been obliged to spend $500 thereon ; 4th. A denial of the alleged items of damage.

The parties submitted the case to the court of common pleas, and, on appeal, to this court, upon the facts stated in the above report of the first trial; admitting, “ for the purpose of the hearing upon this statement of facts, that the plaintiff suffered some injury by the defendant’s said breach of the contract, which was not recovered and was not admitted to be proved in the first action; ” and agreeing that if the foregoing facts constitute a defence to this action, the plaintiff shall become nonsuit; otherwise, the ease shall stand for trial upon the questions presented by the other issues made by the declaration and answer.”

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