Welch v. Kosasky

In 1974 a thief broke into the Welches’ home in Cambridge and stole twelve lots of valuable antique silver from Mrs. Welch’s collection. A month later the defendant, a physician, purchased eleven of the lots from a dealer in Brookline for $2,750, items for which Mrs. Welch had paid in excess of $40,000 during the previous twelve years. There was evidence that the Brookline dealer was involved in receiv ing stolen goods, and the trial judge, who heard the case without a jury, concluded that the defendant, despite his denials, knew or should have known that the silver items he purchased from…