Case ID: mass_96/html/0155-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Bigelow, C. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Bridget Meredith vs. Joseph Wall.
    A complaint under the statute concerning the maintenance of bastard children, made before a police court five years ago, on which no proceedings have been had subsequent to the issuing of a warrant, and which has not been continued or brought forward on the docket, cannot be deemed to be a pending suit in any such sense as to operate in abatement of a new complaint.
    A complaint for the support of a bastard child during its life may be commenced and maintained after its death.
    Complaint under Gen. Sts. c. 72, concerning the maintenance of bastard children.
    The case was submitted to the superior court upon agreed facts, of which the following are those material to the points raised in defence: The child was born in November 1860 and died in October 1862, and the defendant was its father, and its mother maintained it during its life. On the 1st of June 1860 the plaintiff made a complaint against the defendant under the bastardy act before the police court of Lowell, and a warrant issued thereon, but owing to the immediate departure of the defendant from the Commonwealth the warrant was neve” served. The present complaint was made on the 23d of November 1865, shortly after his return; and he was arrested and held to answer thereon.
    The only questions raised were as to the effect of the former complaint, and whether upon the present complaint the defendant could be held for the support of the child by the mother during its life.
    The defendant was adjudged guilty, and appealed to this court.
    
      T. H. Sweetser & W. S. Gardner, for the defendant.
    
      J. F. McEvoy, for the complainant.
   Bigelow, C. J.

A complaint against the defendant for the same cause as that set forth in the present proceedings, made before a police court five years. previously to the commencement of the- present suit, on which no proceedings have been had, and which has not been continued or brought forward on the docket of the court, cannot be deemed to be a pending suit in any such sense as to operate in abatement of the present proceedings. The first complaint may well be regarded as having been abandoned. No service of a process issued thereon has ever been made on the defendant, nor has he been subjected to the jurisdiction of the court under that proceeding.

Process under the bastardy act is not confined to cases where the child is living, or for obtaining security and indemnity for the future maintenance of a child from the putative father. The statute (Gen. Sts. c. 72, § 9) expressly provides for relief and indemnity to the parent, town, city and state from all “ charges that have accrued ” for the maintenance of the child, as well as those which may be incurred in the future.

Defendant to stand charged,