Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/338/338mass305.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 10:27:47+00:00

Document:
EDWIN R. TRAFTON, executor, vs. ELSIE M. CUSTEAU.
CONTRACT. Writ in the Municipal Court of the City of Boston dated November 26, 1956.
Upon removal to the Superior Court the action was tried before Nagle, J.
William J. Ryter, for the plaintiff.
Anthony Brayton, for the defendant, submitted a brief.
RONAN, J. This is an action of contract in three counts upon an indebtedness originally arising out of a loan made by the plaintiff's testate to the defendant. The case is here upon the plaintiff's exceptions to the direction of verdicts for the defendant upon all three counts of the declaration.
I passed the papers, that I would pay Mr. Fraser, but I didn't know that I owed anything on the note or not." The plaintiff testified, however, that when he next saw the defendant after he had mailed her the mortgage deed, "I told her I'd been there [at her new address] for my money." He also testified that he sent her the mortgage in reliance upon her promise to "settle" with him, that is, to pay the loan.
A suggestion of death of the plaintiff on December 14, 1957, was filed and the executor has prosecuted these exceptions.
There was evidence that the defendant believed that the return of the unrecorded mortgage would facilitate the contemplated sale of her house and stated that if the plaintiff would give her the mortgage "I will settle with you." The jury could disbelieve her explanation that she did not know the difference between a deed and a mortgage note, as they could find that she already had previous experience with a savings bank which held the first mortgage upon the same premises, and that she had already made two payments on the instant mortgage. The jury could find that she knew the relationship between the note and mortgage she had given the plaintiff.
it. The jury will then determine what were its terms and apply the law to such facts as they find comprised its terms. Rizzo v. Cunningham, 303 Mass. 16, 20. The jury could have found what arrangement the parties had in mind. Upon the evidence the contract was not too vague to be enforced. The subject was fully discussed by Rugg, J., in Silver v. Graves, 210 Mass. 26, 28-30. Noble v. Mead-Morrison Mfg. Co. 237 Mass. 5, 18-19. There was evidence that the plaintiff gave up the mortgage at the defendant's request and in reliance upon her promise to "settle" with him on the mortgage indebtedness. The surrender of his security would be adequate consideration for her promise. Devine v. Murphy, 168 Mass. 249, 250. See Stebbins v. Smith, 4 Pick. 97; Restatement: Contracts, Section 76 (a). As was said in Devine v. Murphy, at p. 250, the giving up of a mortgage in return for a promise by the mortgagor "is an ordinary case of a simple contract for a valuable consideration."
With respect to the second count of the plaintiff's declaration, for money had and received, such an action "may in general be maintained whenever one has money in his hands belonging to another which in equity and good conscience he ought to pay over to the other. . . . The action may nevertheless be maintained where no money has actually passed but something has been received as a credit which is the equivalent of money." Sherman v. Werby, 280 Mass. 157, 160-161. "Where property belonging to the plaintiff has been reduced to money after it was received by the defendant but before the action is brought, money had and received lies." Devlin v. Houghton, 202 Mass. 75, 78. Simmons v. Barns, 263 Mass. 472, 475. But here we find nothing in the record to indicate that the defendant held proceeds that remained from the sale of her house part of which in equity and good conscience belonged to the plaintiff. The judge was correct, therefore, in directing a verdict in favor of the defendant on the second count.
Exceptions sustained as to the first and third counts; exceptions overruled as to the second count.
[Note 1] These counts alleged in substance that the plaintiff surrendered the mortgage to the defendant in reliance on her assurance that (count 1) "the balance of the mortgage note would be paid" or that (count 3) she "would settle up the entire loan," and that after selling her property she refused to pay the plaintiff such balance. -- REPORTER.

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