Commonwealth v. McNeff
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Complaint, to a trial justice, on the Pub. Sts. e. 101, §§ 6, 7, for keeping and maintaining a common nuisance, to wit, a tenement in Hopkinton, used for the illegal sale and illegal keeping of intoxicating liquors, on May 1, 1886, and on divers other days and times between that day and November 1, 1886. Trial in the Superior Court, on appeal, before Bacon, J., who allowed a bill of exceptions, in substance as follows: It was agreed that the defendant had a license of the…
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Complaint, to a trial justice, on the Pub. Sts. e. 101, §§ 6, 7, for keeping and maintaining a common nuisance, to wit, a tenement in Hopkinton, used for the illegal sale and illegal keeping of intoxicating liquors, on May 1, 1886, and on divers other days and times between that day and November 1, 1886. Trial in the Superior Court, on appeal, before Bacon, J., who allowed a bill of exceptions, in substance as follows: It was agreed that the defendant had a license of the first class to sell liquors to be drunk on the premises. The government put in evidence tending to prove one sale at five…
1Opinion of the CourtHolmes, J.
1. Commonwealth v. Patterson, 138 Mass. 498, did not decide that even a single illegal sale might not be evidence of maintaining a liquor nuisance, (Commonwealth v. Coolidge, 138 Mass. 193,) but simply that a single sale, made it might be casually and without premeditation, could not be said necessarily, and as matter of law, to make the seller guilty of maintaining such a nuisance. If illegal sales on two different days were proved, the element of the continuing use of the building for that purpose, which would not necessarily follow from one sale, would be inferred more easily, and might be…
2Cases cited7 opinions
- Commonwealth v. PattersonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1885
- Commonwealth v. CoolidgeMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1884
- Commonwealth v. KelleyMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1874
- Commonwealth v. CarneyMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1871
- Commonwealth v. MurrayMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1885
2 more not listed; retrieve them via the Exa API.
3Cited by5 opinions
- Commonwealth v. CoughlinMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1903
- Commonwealth v. MaddocksMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1910
- Commonwealth v. MurphyMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1891
- Commonwealth v. ReidMassachusetts Appeals Court · 2008
- Commonwealth v. PurdyMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1888