Commonwealth v. Wood
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Indictment for keeping a tenement used as a house of ill-fame, resorted to for prostitution and lewdness, At the trial in the superior court, before Reed, J., there was testimony tending to show that the defendant lived in the tenement and there exercised various acts of control and management, but that it was owned by his wife as her separate property; that she also lived there and carried on the business; that it was resorted to for prostitution and lewdness, and that the…
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Indictment for keeping a tenement used as a house of ill-fame, resorted to for prostitution and lewdness, At the trial in the superior court, before Reed, J., there was testimony tending to show that the defendant lived in the tenement and there exercised various acts of control and management, but that it was owned by his wife as her separate property; that she also lived there and carried on the business; that it was resorted to for prostitution and lewdness, and that the defendant did not participate in the profits. Thereupon' the defendant asked the judge to instruct the jury that if they…
1Opinion of the CourtChapman, J.
The defendant contends that he is not liable because the house was owned by his wife as her separate property, and the business of keeping a house of ill-fame therein, which was resorted to for prostitution and lewdness, was carried on by her, and she took the profits thereof, and he did not participate in them. Whether he is liable in such a case must depend upon the relations which he sustains to the household, while he lives with his wife as her husband.
The doctrine of the common law is that by marriage the husband and wife become one person in law; that she is under his protection,…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- City of Louisville v. ZanoneCourt of Appeals of Kentucky · 1858
- Commonwealth v. NealMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1813
3Cited by18 opinions
- Quilty v. . BattieNew York Court of Appeals · 1892
- Coolman v. StateIndiana Supreme Court · 1904
- Strouse v. LeipfSupreme Court of Alabama · 1893
- De Forest v. United StatesCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit · 1897
- State v. SmithSupreme Court of Minnesota · 1882
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