Case ID: mass_10/html/0032-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Abraham Touro versus John Coates and Trustees.
    The service of a summons on one as a trustee of an absconding debtor, by leaving a copy at his dwelling-house, was not intended for the case of one absent by sea, but to guard against the fraudulent avoidance of persons liable.
    Where one was summoned, while at sea, by a copy left at his house, and at the first term after his return disclosed, and was discharged, it was holden that he •was entitled to his costs.
    Thomas Brewer, one of the trustees summoned in this process, was absent on a voyage to South America at the time the suit was commenced, after which more than a year elapsed before his return into the commonwealth. The service upon him was by the officer’s leaving a copy of the process at Mr. Brewer’s last and usual place of abode. The action being continued in the Court of Common Pleas, he appeared at the first term after his return, and submitted to examination.
    Upon the appeal, this Court were satisfied that he could not be holden as trustee by the facts in his disclosure, and on that ground discharged him.
   They also observed that the statute, in authorizing a service upon a trustee, by leaving a copy at his usual place of abode, could not intend the case of one absent at sea, who could not obtain knowledge of the service for a long time. The provision was meant to guard against the fraudulent avoidance of persons liable as trustees.

As the trustee came in and disclosed at the first term after his return from sea, the Court awarded him his costs, considering him within the equity of the statute.

ADDITIONAL NOTE

[See, as to service of writs, Ames vs. Winsot, 19 Pick. 247. — F. H.] 
      
      
        Stat. 1794, c. 65.