Case ID: mass_66/html/0278-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the Court.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Robert Mitchell vs. Isaac B. Clapp & another.
    In an action upon Rev. Sts. c. 68, § 13, to recover double damages for an injury by a dog, judgment will not be arrested, because the declaration does not set forth that the acts were done contra formam statuti.
    
    In an action on Rev. Sts. c. 58, § 13, giving double damages against the keeper of a dog, in favor of a party sustaining damage by such dog, after verdict for the plaintiff, the defendants moved in arrest of judgment, because the injurious acts were not alleged to have been done, contra formam statuti. The motion was overruled in the court of common pleas, and the defendants excepted.
    
      
      M. G. Cobb, for the defendants.
    
      E. Buttrick, for the plaintiff.
   By the Court.

This is essentially a remedial and not a penal statute. The damages are given wholly to the party injured. The point was directly decided in Reed v. North-field, 13 Pick. 94. Exceptions overruled.