Cleaveland v. Norton
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
This was a qui tarn action to recover a penalty of the defendant for setting, drawing, and stretching a seine for the taking of alewives in Jane’s cove, in the town of Edgartown, in contravention of the St. 1783, c. 5, § 4,* (1 Mass. Special Laws, 51.) The action was originally brought before a trial-justice for the county of Dukes county, who gave judgment for the plaintiffs, whereupon the defendant appealed to the court of common pleas.
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This was a qui tarn action to recover a penalty of the defendant for setting, drawing, and stretching a seine for the taking of alewives in Jane’s cove, in the town of Edgartown, in contravention of the St. 1783, c. 5, § 4,* (1 Mass. Special Laws, 51.) The action was originally brought before a trial-justice for the county of Dukes county, who gave judgment for the plaintiffs, whereupon the defendant appealed to the court of common pleas. At the trial before Mellen, J., in that court, several points (chiefly relating to matters of form) were taken for the defendant, which, as they were not…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion was delivered at the October term, 1851.
Shaw, C. J.
In this case, we have thought it best to pass over the subordinate questions raised and argued, and proceed to the principal question arising upon the construction of the sta tute, under which the plaintiff claims. This is a qui tam action, for a penalty given by an act passed June 24, 1783, (St. 1783, c. 5,) to secure and protect a fishery in the town of Edgartown. The question is probably an important one, affecting a franchise and exclusive right of fishery, under a charter granted by the legislature, and depends upon the true…
2Cited by1 opinion
- Parkhurst v. Gloucester Mutual Fishing InsuranceMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1868