Case Name: John Valier and Another, Plaintiffs in Error, versus John Hart, Jun., and Another
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1814-09
Citations: 10 Tyng 300
Docket Number: 
Parties: * John Valier and Another, Plaintiffs in Error, versus John Hart, Jun., and Another.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 11
Pages: 274–275

Head Matter:
* John Valier and Another, Plaintiffs in Error, versus John Hart, Jun., and Another.
'Vhere a judgment was rendered by a justice of the peace against an infant, in an action upon contract, error lies in this Court, since the infant could not appeal.
This writ of error was brought to reverse a judgment rendered by a justice of the peace for this county, in an action upon promises, wherein the plaintiffs in error were original defendants, and the defendants in error were original plaintiffs. The error assigned was the minority of one of the original defendants.
Noble, for the defendants in error,
moved the Court to quash the writ, on the ground that an appeal lay from the justice’s judgment to the Court of Common Pleas, and that, where an appeal lies, errai does not lie. He relied on the case of Savage, in Error, vs. Gulliver.
4 Mass. Rep. 171.

Opinion:
By the Court.
The very minority of the party, which is assigned
for error in this case, and which is not denied, disabled him from appealing. The decision in the case cited in support of the motion is very guarded, limiting it to cases where the party may appeal ; and the Court explicitly state their opinion, that the statute, in giving an appeal, has not taken away the remedy by error, in cases where the aggrieved party, without any loches on his part, cannot avail himself of an appeal, which it is very clear an infant cannot.
Hubbard for the plaintiffs in error.
Motion overruled.
Vide 4 Mass. Rep. 516, Putnam, in Error, vs. Churchill.