Commonwealth v. Foley
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Complaint, dated May 25,1868, that the defendant “ on the first day of January in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and sixty-eight” “ was and is a common drunkard, having been at divers days and times since said first day of January in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight drank and intoxicated by the voluntary and excessive use of intoxicating liquors.”
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Complaint, dated May 25,1868, that the defendant “ on the first day of January in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and sixty-eight” “ was and is a common drunkard, having been at divers days and times since said first day of January in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight drank and intoxicated by the voluntary and excessive use of intoxicating liquors.” At the trial in the superior court, before Vose, J., on appeal from a trial justice, the judge ruled that evidence was competent in behalf of the Commonwealth of any and all instances of drunkenness of the defendant between…
1Opinion of the CourtChapman, C. J.
The complaint alleges in proper form that the defendant was a common drunkard on the 1st of January 1868. Commonwealth v. Boon, 2 Gray, 74. But it does not allege in proper form that he was a common drunkard at any other time; the words “having been at divers days and times since said first day of January in the year one thousand eight hundred ánd sixty-eight drunk and intoxicated by the voluntary and excessive use of intoxicating liquors,” not being sufficient. Commonwealth v. Gardner, 7 Gray, 494. The evidence should therefore have been confined to acts done on a single day. Commonwealth v.…
2Cited by2 opinions
- Commonwealth v. GalliganMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1873
- State v. KellySupreme Court of Rhode Island · 1880