Commonwealth v. Wentworth
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
This was an indictment, founded on the statute of 1813, c. 144, made “ for the preservation of fish in Penobscot River and Bay, and the several streams emptying into the same,” and was found at the Circuit Court of Common Pleas for the county of Penobscot.
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This was an indictment, founded on the statute of 1813, c. 144, made “ for the preservation of fish in Penobscot River and Bay, and the several streams emptying into the same,” and was found at the Circuit Court of Common Pleas for the county of Penobscot. It charges the defendants, all being named as inhabitants of Orrington, in the said county, that, on the 2d of June, 1817, before sunrise of the same day, at said Orrington, in and by a certain net or wear, between the banks of Penobscot River, they unlawfully caught thirty alewives; whereby a forfeiture has accrued, one half to a…
1Opinion of the CourtWilde, J.
We have looked into the two statutes, and are of opinion that there is no reasonable doubt as to their construction, in relation to the present question. By the first act the profits of the fishery within the town of Orrington * are secured to the town, as a corporate right. This appears to have been the principal object of the act. A committee is to be appointed annually, to compel the observance of the laws respecting the passage-ways for fish, and to remove obstructions therefrom. They are also to appoint four days in each week, from the 1st of April to the 1st of July, annually, when fish…
2Cited by2 opinions
- Bush v. ClarkMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1879
- Commonwealth v. Springfield Terminal Railway Co.Massachusetts Appeals Court · 2011