Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/341/341mass666.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 10:34:41+00:00

Document:
HELEN H. MOORE DAY vs. WALLACE E. CROWLEY & another, trustees, & others.
PETITION filed in the Probate Court for the county of Middlesex on May 20, 1958.
The case was heard by McMenimen, J.
John O. Rhome, (Kenneth A. Korb with him,) for the petitioner.
Joseph B. Abrams, (Robert T. Abrams & Wallace E. Crowley with him,) for the respondent trustees.
of trust, at the express risk of her rights under the will which contained an in terrorem clause, and of her rights under the trust, and of damages in the minimum amount of $2,000; (b) "discovery of all the transactions of said trustees"; (c) that the trustees be ordered to account; and (d) that the accounts be verified and adjudicated. The plea set out that a prior proceeding seeking the same accounting was heard, determined and dismissed.
110. The judge on January 6, 1958, had indorsed on the demurrer, "after hearing . . . overruled," on the plea, "after hearing the within plea is hereby sustained," and on the petition, "the within petition is hereby dismissed." The docket shows the three orders and an appeal from the order on the demurrer. The judge took judicial notice of the fact that he sat on the previous case. A report of material facts stated additionally that the judge took judicial notice of the docket entries; and contained the following statements: "one of the grounds for the plea in abatement . . . was that the petitioner had no legal right of action, presumably, because of the release and waiver (see release attached to the petition in the instant case) . . .. The trust deed . . . permits the trustees to settle with the petitioner, or anyone else, and to procure a release . . . [and] to account, or not . . . in their own discretion. There is also an in terrorem clause in the will . . . and in the codicil . . . which barred anyone from bringing any action. The petitioner, and about eight other beneficiaries, were named in the will and codicil and given small money bequests, but were devised nothing specifically in the trust deed except in the sole discretion of the fiduciaries. . . . I find as a fact that this instant petition was barred on the grounds of res judicata since all matters in so far as this instant petitioner is concerned were settled in the first petition, or should have been. I specifically find that the release and waiver . . . was free from any taint and was given for valid consideration and that the petitioner did not avail herself of the allegation of fraud in the previous hearing although the release was in existence and the circumstances of its execution were the same at the time of the first hearing."
was the case to which the decree or judgment applies (Boston & Maine R. R. v. T. Stuart & Son Co. 236 Mass. 98, 102, Siegel v. Knott, 318 Mass. 257, 258-259 [the transcript of evidence], Silva v. Brown, 319 Mass. 466, 467), the judge "cannot properly state the secret and unexpressed reasons which actuated his decision." Freeman, Judgments (5th ed.) Section 771. Higgins v. Pratt, 316 Mass. 700, 715. "A judgment is a solemn record. . . . It . . . ought never to be overthrown or limited by the oral testimony of a judge or juror of what he had in mind at the time of the decision." Fayerweather v. Ritch, 195 U.S. 276, 307. Findings could not be made in this case on the evidence in the earlier case. Findings in this case cannot have the effect of findings in the earlier case. See 291 Washington St. Inc. v. School St. Liquors, Inc. 331 Mass. 150, 150-151; Rappel v. Italian Catholic Cemetery Assn. 259 Mass. 550, 553. The judge did not purport to take judicial notice of the undisclosed basis of his decree; he could not have done so. Duarte, petitioner, 331 Mass. 747, 749-750. See Morgan, The Law of Evidence 1941-1945, 59 Harv. L. Rev. 481, 487. See for cases where judicial notice was taken of matters of record, Matter of Keenan, 314 Mass. 544, 548; Gordon v. Gordon, 332 Mass. 210, 213, and cases cited; Vigoda v. Barton, 338 Mass. 302, 303.
The petitioner contends that the record, without these findings, does not show whether the basis of the earlier decree was lack of parties or that Day had "no legal right to bring this petition," and that therefore it is not res judicata. We are constrained to agree, notwithstanding the indications that the judge had intended to dispose of the case on the broader ground. Foster v. The Richard Busteed, 100 Mass. 409, 411-412. Hacker v. Beck, 325 Mass. 594, 598. Lea v. Lea, 99 Mass. 493, 496. Cochrane v. Cochrane, 303 Mass. 467, 471-472. Restatement: Judgments, Section 49, comment c. See Abbott v. Bean, 295 Mass. 268, 274-275. Compare Fayerweather v. Ritch, 195 U.S. 276. The burden was on the respondents to show the basis of the decree. Cochrane v. Cochrane, 303 Mass. 467, 472. Hacker v. Beck, 325 Mass. 594, 598.
Foster v. The Richard Busteed, supra, held that a petition for the enforcement of a lien on a vessel was not barred by a general decree dismissing a prior petition to enforce the same lien where it did not appear whether the judgment was based on technical defences (petition prematurely brought and vessel in marshal's custody) or on the merits. The indications in that case were such that the court thought it highly probable that the dismissal was on the technical defences, but the principle stated is no less applicable. The court said, "But the entry was in general terms, no specific reasons were assigned, and we cannot explore the mind of the court to ascertain what the real reasons were. . .. And where in the answer various matters of defence are set forth, some of which relate only to the maintenance of the suit, and others to the merits, and there is a general decree of bill dismissed, from which it does not appear what was the prevailing ground of defence, it is impossible to hold that the decree operates to preclude future proceedings." In the Fayerweather case, supra, the Supreme Court of the United States said (p. 307), "[W]here the evidence is that testimony was offered at the prior trial upon several distinct issues, the decision of any one of which would justify the verdict or judgment, then the conclusion must be that the prior decision is not an adjudication upon any particular issue or issues, and the plea of res judicata must fail."
We agree with the respondents that it is probable that if the plea had been sustained as a plea in abatement for want of parties the judge would have afforded the petitioner an opportunity to amend. G. L. c. 231, Section 51. Conley v. Fenelon, 274 Mass. 160, 161. But the rules then in force did not require that this be done (Rule 5 of the Probate Courts ; compare new Rule 33 of the Probate Courts effective April 1, 1959), and a conclusion may not be based on this speculation.
of a variance throughout the trial. The judge directed a verdict "on the evidence, on the pleadings and on the law." The court said it was not called upon to speculate whether the judge's action was on a variance or without regard to a variance; the first action was in essence based on the same alleged transactions, acts and agreements and the plaintiffs had ample opportunity to state their cause of action completely and correctly and have their pleadings conform to the proof; the doctrine of res judicata applies equally where this opportunity exists and is not embraced. The governing principles were restated from Mackintosh v. Chambers, 285 Mass. 594, 596-597. "The statement of a different form of liability is not a different cause of action . . .. A party cannot preserve the right to bring a second action . . . merely by having circumscribed and limited the theories of recovery opened by the pleadings in the first."
The respondents do not contend that the plea of want of parties was without any merit. We do not reach the issue of the effect of the inclusion, with a hearing on a substantive point, of the issue of a plainly frivolous technicality.
The decrees are reversed. A decree is to enter overruling the plea.

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