Commonwealth v. White
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Complaint under St. 1904, c. 460, § 2, received and sworn to in the Third District Court of Plymouth on September 20,1904, charging that the defendant at Carver on September 18,1904, that being the Lord’s day, did labor, business and work, to wit, the gathering of cranberries, the same not being a work of necessity or charity.
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Complaint under St. 1904, c. 460, § 2, received and sworn to in the Third District Court of Plymouth on September 20,1904, charging that the defendant at Carver on September 18,1904, that being the Lord’s day, did labor, business and work, to wit, the gathering of cranberries, the same not being a work of necessity or charity. The case came by appeal to the Superior Court where it was tried before Lawton, J. There was evidence tending to show that the defendant on the day named in the complaint and for some time before was a part owner and the superintendent and sole manager of seventeen…
1Opinion of the CourtHammond, J.
The main question is whether the evidence would warrant a finding that the work in question was one of “ necessity ” within the meaning of that word as used in the statute, (St. 1904, c. 460, § 2,) which, with certain exceptions not here material, makes it a criminal offence to do on the Lord’s day “ any manner of labor, business or work, except works of necessity and charity.”
In construing this statute it is to be borne in mind that so far as material to the question before us, it is simply the continuation of a law which from a very early time in the history of the Colony has been…
2Cases cited4 opinions
- McGrath v. MerwinMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1873
- Commonwealth v. SampsonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1867
- Davis v. City of SomervilleMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1880
- Commonwealth v. JosselynMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1867
3Cited by15 opinions
- McGowan v. MarylandSupreme Court of the United States · 1961
- Gallagher v. Crown Kosher Super Market of Massachusetts, Inc.Supreme Court of the United States · 1961
- Natural Gas Products Co. v. ThurmanCourt of Appeals of Kentucky · 1924
- Crown Kosher Super Market of Mass., Inc. v. GallagherDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts · 1959
- McAfee v. CommonwealthCourt of Appeals of Kentucky · 1917
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