Failure to Object
The father did not object to the judge permitting the witness to testify in private. [ 2] "Ordinarily, a
party is not entitled to present an argument on appeal on an issue not presented in the court below."
Atlas Tack Corp. v. DiMasi, 37 Mass.App.Ct. 66, 70, 637 N.E.2d 230 (1994). "However, '[t]here may always be exceptional cases or particular circumstances which will prompt a reviewing or appellate court, where injustice might otherwise result, to consider questions of law which were neither pressed nor passed upon by the court ... below.... Rules of practice and procedure are devised to promote the ends of justice, not to defeat them.' " Cruz v. Commissioner of Pub. Welfare, 395 Mass. 107, 111, 478 N.E.2d 1262 (1985), quoting from Hormel v. Helvering, 312 U.S. 552, 557, 61 S.Ct. 719, 721, 85 L.Ed. 1037 (1941). See also Albert v. Municipal Court of the City of Boston, 388 Mass. 491, 494, 446 N.E.2d 1385
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