Legal Opinion

Commonwealth v. Lavonsair

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided January 5, 1882PublishedCited by 2 opinions

Complaint to a trial justice of Hampshire, alleging that the defendant, on August 20, 1880, “ and on divers other days and times between that day and the twenty-fifth day of October in the same year, at Northampton, in said county, did keep and maintain a certain common nuisance, to wit, a certain house of ill fame, then and on said other days and times resorted to for the purpose of prostitution and lewdness, to the common nuisance of all the citizens of said Commonwealth…

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Complaint to a trial justice of Hampshire, alleging that the defendant, on August 20, 1880, “ and on divers other days and times between that day and the twenty-fifth day of October in the same year, at Northampton, in said county, did keep and maintain a certain common nuisance, to wit, a certain house of ill fame, then and on said other days and times resorted to for the purpose of prostitution and lewdness, to the common nuisance of all the citizens of said Commonwealth there residing, inhabiting and passing, and against the peace of the Commonwealth and the form of the statute in such…

1Opinion of the CourtAllen, J.

Before the enactment of the General Statutes, a keeper of a house of ill fame could be punished only under the St. of 1855, c. 405, which declared all buildings, places, or tenements used as houses of ill fame, resorted to for prostitution, lewdness, or for illegal gaming, &c., to be common nuisances, and prescribed penalties for the keepers of such nuisances, this statute having repealed by implication the Rev. Sts. c. 130, § 8, relating to houses of ill fame. The Gen. Sts. c. 87, § 6, reenacted the provision of the St. of 1855, e. 405, leaving out the words “used as houses of ill fame,” and…

2Cases cited1 opinion

  1. Commonwealth v. BallouMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1878

3Cited by2 opinions

  1. State v. GardnerSupreme Court of Iowa · 1916
  2. Commonwealth v. GouldingMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1883

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