Case Name: Kelsea v. Manchester
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New Hampshire
Decision Date: 1888-06
Citations: 64 N.H. 570
Docket Number: 
Parties: Kelsea v. Manchester.
Judges: Doe, C. J., did not sit: the others concurred.
Reporter: New Hampshire Reports
Volume: 64
Pages: 570–570

Head Matter:
Kelsea v. Manchester.
Ignorance of the law by counsel furnishes ground for granting leave to file a claim for damages against a town, under Gen. Laws, c. 75, s. 9.
Petition, upon Gen. Laws, e. 75, s. 9, for leave to file with the defendants’ aldermen a claim for damage caused by a defective highway. The plaintiff’s counsel seasonably filed a claim with the city clerk, but omitted to file a claim with the aldermen because he did not know that the law (c. 65, Laws 1885) required a claim to be filed with any other person than the city clerk. The court granted the petition, and the defendants excepted.
A. C. Osgood, for the plaintiff.
E. F. Jones, for the defendants.

Opinion:
BINGHAM, J.
The petitioner was not learned in the law, and employed counsel to manage his cause who omitted to file a claim for damages with the aldermen because be did not know that c. 65, Laws, 1885, required such claim to be filed with any other person than the city clerk. The plaintiff's ignorance of the law was due to no neglect or fault of his, but, being unlearned, he used ordinary care and prudence in employing counsel to file the claim. The case comes within the rule in Bolles v. Dalton, 59 N. H. 479.
Exception overruled.
Doe, C. J., did not sit: the others concurred.