Commonwealth v. Blaisdell
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Indictment for maintaining a nuisance in Hurd Street, a highway in Lowell, on January 1, 1870. At the trial in the superior court in Middlesex, before Seudder, J., it appeared that Hurd Street was laid out as a highway June 26,1839, and the boundaries thereof shown and made certain; that the defendant, at the time charged, owned a dwell ing-house on the street, with three front steps projecting into the street about three and a half feet; and that these steps constituted the…
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Indictment for maintaining a nuisance in Hurd Street, a highway in Lowell, on January 1, 1870. At the trial in the superior court in Middlesex, before Seudder, J., it appeared that Hurd Street was laid out as a highway June 26,1839, and the boundaries thereof shown and made certain; that the defendant, at the time charged, owned a dwell ing-house on the street, with three front steps projecting into the street about three and a half feet; and that these steps constituted the nuisance. There was also evidence tending to show that the steps were placed there as early as the year 1834. The…
1Opinion of the CourtGbay, J.
Placing or maintaining a building, stones or other obstructions in a public highway, without lawful authority, is a nuisance at common law, and indictable as such. Commonwealth v. King, 13 Met. 115. Stoughton v. Porter, 13 Allen, 191. Rose. Crim. Ev. (6th ed.) 541. By the statute provisions now in force, which took effect from and after December 31,1839, when the boundaries of a highway are made certain, (as they were in this case,) the continuance of a building in a highway cannot be justified by any length of time less than forty years, but may be indicted as a nuisance. Rev. Sts. c. 24, §§…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Fisk v. CushmanMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1850
3Cited by21 opinions
- Haskell v. City of New BedfordMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1871
- State v. BerdettaIndiana Supreme Court · 1880
- Wood v. City of RichmondSupreme Court of Virginia · 1927
- City of Emporia v. HumphreySupreme Court of Kansas · 1931
- Grandona v. LovdalCalifornia Supreme Court · 1886
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