Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/304/304mass46.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 02:02:26+00:00

Document:
JOHN F. FLEMING vs. ERNEST B. DANE & others.
A declaration against an individual, a bank, and an oil corporation in a town, set forth neither a cause of action for conspiracy nor substantive facts as to mere joint participation in tortious acts stated with the conciseness and certainty required by G.L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 231, Section 7, Second, where there was no averment of fraud or corruption, and the averments were in substance merely that the individual defendant and another had "commanding influence" in the management of the bank and that they were able to exercise great influence in the community and a "commanding influence in the determination of the board of selectmen" as to granting gasoline permits; that, using their influence, they caused the board to refuse a gasoline permit for property of the plaintiff, the granting of which would have resulted in a lease to the oil company at a rental sufficient to enable the plaintiff to pay a mortgage on his property held by the bank, caused the bank to foreclose the mortgage and buy the property at the sale, caused the oil company to refrain from bidding at the sale, and caused a subsequent sale of the property at an advanced price to the oil company and the granting of a gasoline permit to it; and that the bank had unwarrantably refused delivery to the plaintiff of securities of his wife which might have been used to prevent a breach of the mortgage.
TORT. Writ in the Superior Court dated July 30, 1936.
Demurrers to an amended declaration were sustained by Donahue, J.
R. P. Baldwin, (W. J. Barry with him,) for the plaintiff.
D. E. Hall, (P. N. Jones & D. R. Pokross with him,) for the defendants Dane and another.
W. F. Coles, for the defendant Colonial Beacon Oil Company.
H. D. White, for the defendant The Brookline Savings Bank.
and the action is again here upon the plaintiff's appeal from orders sustaining demurrers of all defendants.
(1) So to use their influence with, and power over, the selectmen as to prevent them from granting a permit to the plaintiff.
(2) To convince the oil company that no permit could be obtained without the consent of the other defendants and thus to induce it to become a party to said plan and to agree not to bid when the property should be offered at a foreclosure sale, but to buy it thereafter from the mortgagee trust company "at a greatly reduced price."
(3) To foreclose the mortgage by sale at a price "far below its value" by reason of said denial of a permit and the agreement of the oil company not to bid.
(4) To withdraw their opposition to the granting of a permit and to obtain a permit for the oil company.
(a) Concealing the plan and pretending to act from proper motives, "by the expression of their wishes to, and the exercise of their influence on, the board of selectmen" they "caused successive petitions by the plaintiff for such permits to be denied . . .," although but for the combined influence of the defendants the selectmen would have granted a permit and denied it solely because of that influence "exerted upon them to that end."
(b) After the denial of the plaintiff's last petition in February, 1934, the defendants caused the trust company to foreclose its mortgage and to buy in "Fleming Corner" at the foreclosure sale on March 14, 1934, for $78,000.
(c) By agreement among the defendants the oil company, which, but for the agreement and the plan, would have paid a price far in excess of the amount of the mortgage, refrained from bidding.
(d) The defendants caused a petition for a permit to be filed by the oil company, which was granted on June 4.
(e) On July 6 the trust company transferred the land to the oil company for $98,000.
"By the aforesaid means the defendants, acting in combination, and using their combined influence to accomplish ends which none of them could have accomplished alone, deprived the plaintiff of his property, to his great damage, as set forth in the writ."
by someone in behalf of every bank) and the power to exercise in some manner not stated "a commanding influence" in the decisions of the selectmen as to granting permits. We see nothing in the exercise of these powers by Dane and Cousens in association with each other and with the other defendants as alleged which gives to their acts in combination any greater or different tortious quality than would be ascribed to the same acts if performed by separate individuals only. We conclude, therefore, that the allegations of conspiracy in this declaration have no further effect than to show that any tort disclosed by the declaration to have been committed was a joint tort for which the several defendants who participated in it would be jointly liable. Parker v. Huntington, 2 Gray 124. Randall v. Hazelton, 12 Allen 412. Boston v. Simmons, 150 Mass. 461, 463. Bilafsky v. Conveyancers Title Ins. Co. 192 Mass. 504. Perry v. Hayes, 215 Mass. 296. Loughery v. Central Trust Co. 258 Mass. 172, 176. Farquhar v. New England Trust Co. 261 Mass. 209, 214. Antoine v. Commonwealth Trust Co. 266 Mass. 202, 206. Cummings v. Harrington, 278 Mass. 527, 529, 530. Robitaille v. Morse, 283 Mass. 27, 31. Caverno v. Fellows, 286 Mass. 440, 443, 444. Johnson v. East Boston Savings Bank, 290 Mass. 441. McCarthy v. Hawes, 299 Mass. 340, 344. DesLauries v. Shea, 300 Mass. 30. Comerford v. Meier, 302 Mass. 398, 401. Neustadt v. Employers' Liability Assurance Corp. Ltd. 303 Mass. 321, 325, 326.
and its officers were not in a fiduciary position towards the plaintiff, except in the actual exercise of the power of sale. King v. State Mutual Fire Ins. Co. 7 Cush. 1, 7. Dennett v. Tilton, 227 Mass. 299. Willett v. Herrick, 258 Mass. 585, 599. They had a right to foreclose a mortgage that was in default without regard to their motives, Randall v. Hazelton, 12 Allen 412, 415, Willett v. Herrick, 258 Mass. 585, 604, Antoine v. Commonwealth Trust Co. 266 Mass. 202, 206, Dickerman v. Northern Trust Co. 176 U.S. 181, 190, and even if the motive was to get the property for themselves. See Robitaille v. Morse, 283 Mass. 27, 31. The allegations as to the possession and exercise of influence over the granting of permits by the selectmen do not make out a cause of action. The nature of this influence and the manner of its exercise do not appear. It is not alleged that influence was exercised corruptly or unlawfully. It may have taken the form of proper and cogent argument at the public hearing required to be held by G.L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 148, Section 13. So far as appears there may have been excellent reasons for refusing a permit to the plaintiff and for granting one later to the oil company. So far as appears the selectmen acted in entire good faith for the public interest, as they are presumed to have done, Morrison v. Selectmen of Weymouth, 279 Mass. 486, 493, even if their action might have been different except for the "influence." See Reuter v. Ballard, 267 Mass. 557, 566. The allegations as to the refusal to deliver securities belonging to the plaintiff's wife upon her order do not state a cause of action in the plaintiff. If the declaration contains the germ of a cause of action under the principle of Sandler v. Silk, 292 Mass. 493, 497 (compare DesLauries v. Shea, 300 Mass. 30, 38-39), for wrongful conduct of the foreclosure by stifling bidding, which we do not decide, that subject is too deeply buried in matter wholly immaterial to it to permit us to hold that a cause of action is stated concisely and with substantial certainty as required by the statute.

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