Case Name: William Heath, Judge, &c., versus Jesse Gay
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1813-10
Citations: 9 Tyng 371
Docket Number: 
Parties: William Heath, Judge, &c., versus Jesse Gay.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 10
Pages: 370–371

Head Matter:
William Heath, Judge, &c., versus Jesse Gay.
In an action of debt brought by the judge of probate, for the benefit of a creditoi to an insolvent estate, against a surety in the administration bond, for the sum due such creditor upon the report of the commissioners, and the decree of the judge thereon, the creditor had execution for the sum due, with interest froir the time of a demand made on the surety.
This was an action of debt, brought in the name of the judge of probate for the county of Norfolk, against the defendant, who was surety in an administration bond, for the benefit of a creditor of the intestate, whose estate was insolvent; the creditor’s demand having been allowed by the commissioners upon the estate, and a distribution decreed by the judge; the administrator, who was principal in the bond, having died insolvent soon after the decree of distribution was made.
The forfeiture being confessed, and the defendant having moved to be heard in chancery,
Haven, for the plaintiff,
claimed to be allowed, over the amount due the creditor by the judge’s decree, interest on that amount from the date of the decree. He likened it to a judgment, upon which interest is always allowed in an action of debt, brought upon the judgment; and he relied on the case of Paine, Judge, &c., vs. M’Intier, which was an action brought to recover the distributive shares of a grandfather’s estate; and there the Court awarded interest from the decree of distribution.
Chickering for the defendant.
1 Mass. Rep. 69.

Opinion:
The Court
took time for consideration, and afterwards, observing that they did not hold themselves bound by the decision in the case cited, decreed that interest should be added [ * 372 ] * to the sum found due by the judge's decree, from the time when a demand should be proved to have been made on the defendant, the surety in the bond.
Memorandum. — On' Saturday, the 30th of October, 1813, died, at his house in Boston, the Hon. Theophilus Parsons, chief justice of this Court; and on the Tuesday following his remains were in-tombed, accompanied by a long procession of relatives and friends The pall was supported by his excellency Governor Strong, Lieutenant-Governor Phillips, the Hon. Justices Sewall, Parker, and Jackson, and the Rev. Dr. Kirkland, president of Harvard University.
The general sense of the public loss, in the death of this learned jurist, exemplary magistrate, and real Christian, alike honorable to the community and to the deceased, was shown in the unanimous act of the legislature, directing the secretary of the commonwealth to request of the Hon. Judge Parker a copy of that part of his charge to the grand jury of the county of Suffolk, "wherein he delineated the character of the late venerated Chief Justice Parsons," and to cause it to be inserted in the next volume of the Reports. That interesting sketch will accordingly be found as an appendix to this volume.
-Breve irreparabile tempus
Omnibus est vitíe; sed famam extendere factis, Hoc virtutis opus Virgil