Commonwealth v. Nickerson
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Complaint, received and sworn to in the Municipal Court of the City of Boston on February 13, 1920, charging the defendant with unlawfully selling intoxicating liquor on February 12, 1920, “not having then and there any license, authority or appointment, according to law, to make such sale.” On appeal to the Superior Court, the defendant filed a motion to quash the complaint, a motion to dismiss the complaint for want of jurisdiction, and a plea in bar.
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Complaint, received and sworn to in the Municipal Court of the City of Boston on February 13, 1920, charging the defendant with unlawfully selling intoxicating liquor on February 12, 1920, “not having then and there any license, authority or appointment, according to law, to make such sale.” On appeal to the Superior Court, the defendant filed a motion to quash the complaint, a motion to dismiss the complaint for want of jurisdiction, and a plea in bar. The questions raised by the motions and the plea related to the jurisdiction of the courts of the Commonwealth in cases involving the sale of…
1Opinion of the CourtRugg, C. J.
The defendant is charged with having sold intoxicating liquor without license and contrary to law at Boston on February 12, 1920. The complaint is framed under R. L. c. 100, §§ 1 and 53, in two counts for two separate sales. The only evidence offered at the trial tended to show that the defendant on the date alleged made two distinct sales of whiskey, containing forty-seven per cent of alcohol by volume at sixty degrees Fahrenheit. The defendant offered no evidence. It is not contended that she was authorized to make the sales either by federal or State law. The single question raised on the…
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