The defendants not having pleaded payment or satisfaction, nor appearing to have offered any evidence thereof, the ruling below that the plaintiff could not recover in this action (which is evidently not a finding or conclusion of fact, but a decision that the plaintiff could not recover as matter of law) was erroneous. O'Neal v. Kittredge, 3 Allen, 470. Linton v. Hurley, 114 Mass. 76. Exceptions sustained.