Richardson v. City of Cambridge
Richardson v. City of Cambridge
Opinion of the Court
The lot described in the petition is known as the meeting-house lot. It is about seventeen rods in length and eight rods in breadth, and is bounded by several streets in Cambridge. The petitioners are the heirs of Newell Bent, late of Cambridge, deceased, and claim under a mortgage deed, made to him by Rufus Davenport, dated November 1st 1827, which they say includes this lot. The condition of the mortgage is that, if the grantor, his heirs, &c., shall pay to the grantee, his heirs, &c., a note of $6000 on demand with interest, the deed and note shall both be void. The property mortgaged includes many particulars. The deed describes a great number of tracts of land by reference to other deeds. It also includes all the grantor’s pews in the meeting-house then standing on the lot, which are designated by their numbers. If the meeting-house lot is included in the mortgage, it is by the following clause:
“ And I the said Rufus Davenport do hereby give, grant, sell and convey unto the said Newell Bent, his heirs and assigns, all (except as hereinafter excepted) of the land and right and claim to land which I the said Rufus now have in the towns of
The first question to be considered is whether this clause includes the meeting-house lot.
The title to the lot was then in the Cambridgeport Parish, under a deed from the Cambridgeport Meeting-house Corporation, dated February 18, 1809. The grantors held it under the deed of Rufus Davenport to Royal Makepeace and four other persons, dated April 26,1806. Thése parties held it under a deed from Andrew Boardman and others, dated April 15, 1806. Boardtnan’s deed recites that whereas he had previously sold certain lands to Davenport, and certain other lands to Make-peace, and had covenantedvwith them that he would lay out a square or piece of land for a meeting-house lot, he therefore conveys this lot to these grantees, their heirs and assigns, to hold in certain proportions in common, with warranty. The deed of Davenport, Makepeace, and their associates, is in consideration of friendship and goodwill to the Cambridgeport Meeting-house Corporation, and conveys the lot to the corporation, its successors and assigns, “ on the conditions and for the purposes hereafter mentioned, and no other. The said corporation shall have a right to keep and continue a meeting-house thereon, where the one now building stands,” &c. Assuming that this conveyance was conditional, it was on a condition subsequent; and, when the condition should be broken, it would give the grantors a right of entry for the breach. At the time of Davenport’s mortgage to Bent, the condition had not been broken. The grantees of the corporation had a meeting-house upon it, which was the same house that contained the pews mentioned in the mortgage. The house remained, and was used for religious worship till
But if the mortgage had included this lot, there is another fact which is fatal to the petitioners’ claim. It does not appear when or how the note was paid; but after the death of the mortgagor, it was found among his papers. The presumption arising out of this fact is that it was paid according to its terms ; that is, that it was paid when demanded. If it was so paid, the estate of the mortgagee thereupon expired by its own terms, and the mortgagor was in of his old estate. No release of the mortgage was necessary, and no equity of redemption existed. Holman v. Bailey, 3 Met. 55.
It appears that after the decease of Davenport and Bent a suit was brought by the heirs of Davenport against the heirs of Bent to redeem; but upon the note being found among the papers of Davenport, a settlement was made by which the heirs
The petitioners also claim under a deed from John Tarbell, a deputy sheriff, by which, in January 1828, he conveyed to Newell Bent all Davenport’s right in equity of redeeming the real estate described in the mortgage above referred to; but of this they, cannot avail themselves: first, because it did not include the meeting-house lot; and secondly, because there does not appear to have been any existing equity of redemption when the deed was made. And if there was such an equity existing at the time, Bent suffered the mortgage to be discharged by giving up the note, and did not in his lifetime assert any right to such equity. There is "no occasion, therefore, to consider the objections to the sale of Tarbell on account of formal defects.
The proceedings upon the petition for partition in 1837 did not bind the heirs of Davenport, because they were not parties, and had no opportunity to become parties. Fisk and Rice were the petitioners, and Mason and the heirs of Newell Bent were the respondents. And though the judgment was conclusive as to all the then existing rights of the parties, by Rev. Sts. c. 103, § 33, yet it did not operate as a warranty upon rights to be acquired afterwards. The language of the statute refers only to the present rights of parties as being concluded. If there were better titles outstanding in third persons, they were unaffected
Judgment for respondents.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.