Commonwealth v. McCarty
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Complaint, on the Pub. Sts. c. 102, § 112, to the District Court of East Norfolk, alleging that the defendant, at Holbrook, on October 15, 1884, and on divers other days and times between that day and March 12,1885, “ not being then and there first duly licensed according to law, for hire, gain, and reward did unlawfully keep and suffer to be kept in a certain building there situate, and by him .... then and there actually owned, a certain billiard table, for the purpose of…
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Complaint, on the Pub. Sts. c. 102, § 112, to the District Court of East Norfolk, alleging that the defendant, at Holbrook, on October 15, 1884, and on divers other days and times between that day and March 12,1885, “ not being then and there first duly licensed according to law, for hire, gain, and reward did unlawfully keep and suffer to be kept in a certain building there situate, and by him .... then and there actually owned, a certain billiard table, for the purpose of playing at a certain game called billiards.” Trial in the Superior Court, on appeal, before Knowlton, J., who allowed a…
1Opinion of the CourtHolmes, J.
The burden was on the defendant to prove a license to the actual keeper, if he justified under it. Pub. Sts. c. 214, § 12. Commonwealth v. Belou, 115 Mass. 139. Hence he cannot have been prejudiced in any way by the failure of the complaint to deny it; and, although it should be conceded that the technical rules of pleading are not affected by the statute as to the burden of proof, that the absence of a license to the actual keeper entered into the description of the offence, and that the first request for a ruling was in effect a motion to quash, still under the circumstances we think the…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Commonwealth v. BelouMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1874
3Cited by3 opinions
- Commonwealth v. JonesMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1977
- Commonwealth v. DavisMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1971
- Commonwealth v. St. PierreMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1899