Commonwealth v. Nagle
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Indictment on the Gen. Sts. c. 84, § 1, for keeping open a shop on the Lord’s day. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Lord, J., the evidence tended to prove that the defendant kept his shop open for traffic on November 15, 1874, being the Lord’s day; and that it was a liquor shop and bar room.
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Indictment on the Gen. Sts. c. 84, § 1, for keeping open a shop on the Lord’s day. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Lord, J., the evidence tended to prove that the defendant kept his shop open for traffic on November 15, 1874, being the Lord’s day; and that it was a liquor shop and bar room. At the conclusion of the evidence on the part of the government, the defendant’s counsel inquired of the judge whether he should rule that the jury might find, from the nature of the business, that the keeping open the shop was not a work of necessity or charity, or whether the government must…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court.
The jury, under the instructions given them at the trial, must have found that the defendant kept a liquor shop and bar room open for ordinary traffic with the public indiscriminately on the Lord’s day. This was clearly a violation of the Gen. Sts. o. 84, § 1, upon which the indictment is based.
Exceptions overruled.
2Cited by3 opinions
- Commonwealth v. DextraMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1886
- Commonwealth v. MoriartyMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1942
- Stark v. BackusWisconsin Supreme Court · 1909