Case ID: mass_74/html/0395-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "The Court held,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Patrick Gannon vs. Charles J. Adams.
    A common seller of intoxicating liquors, sentenced to imprisonment and payment of fine and costs under Si. 1855, c. 216, § 17, is not entitled to be discharged as a poor convict under the Rev. Sts. c. 145, § 3, until after three months from the expiration of the time for which he was sentenced to be imprisoned.
    . Petition for a writ of habeas corpus presented on the 2d of March 1857, by one imprisoned in the house of correction, (of which the respondent was master,) under a mittimus issued by the court of common pleas in Middlesex on the 15th of November 1856, after the petitioner had been convicted in that court of being a common seller of intoxicating liquors, and sentenced to pay a fine of fifty dollars and costs of prosecution, and be imprisoned in the house of correction three months, and stand committed in pursuance of said sentence.
    The case was heard before a single judge, and by him reserved for the consideration of the full court, to whom it was submitted without argument.
   The Court held,

that as the Rev. Sts. c. 145, § 3, applied to cases of poor convicts who “ shall have been confined in prison for a space of three months for fine and costs only,” said space of three months must be computed from the expiration of the time for which the petitioner was sentenced to be imprisoned, pursuant to St. 1855, c. 215, § 17; for until the expiration of that time he could not be said to be imprisoned “ for fine and costs only,” within the meaning of Rev. Sts. c. 145, § 3.

Petition dismissed.