Case Name: Commonwealth vs. Silas Chamberlain & another
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1871-03
Citations: 107 Mass. 209
Docket Number: 
Parties: Commonwealth vs. Silas Chamberlain & another.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 107
Pages: 209–210

Head Matter:
Commonwealth vs. Silas Chamberlain & another.
An indictment, purporting to have been found at the term begun and holden on the first Monday of July of a court which is required by law to begin and hold a term on the first Monday of every month, is not necessarily vitiated by the fact that the said Monday was the fourth day of July.
Indictment with this caption : “ Suffolk, to wit: At the superior court, begun and holden at the city of Boston, within and for the county of Suffolk, for the transaction of criminal business, on the first Monday of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy, the jurors for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on their oath present,” &c.
In the superior court, before the jury were empanelled, the defendants moved to quash the indictment, because “ it appears, by an inspection of the indictment and its caption, that the proceedings of the grand jury in relation to the bill found against the defendants were informal, irregular and void, as having been had upon a day not juridical; ” and Wilkinson, J., overruled the motion. The defendants were tried and found guilty, and alleged exceptions.
A. E. Briggs, for the defendants.
C. Allen, Attorney General, for the Commonwealth.

Opinion:
Gray, J.
Every term of the superior court in Suffolk for criminal business is required by law to be begun and held on the first Monday of the month. Gen. Sts. c. 114, § 16. . That day in July 1870 having been the fourth day of July, the court could not indeed be opened, except for the purpose of entering or continuing cases, or adjourning. Gen. Sts. c. 122, § 4. But the caption of the indictment merely shows the day on which the term was begun and held, not the day of the return of the particular indictment, and is in the same form upon all the indictments returned at any time during the term. Commonwealth v. Colton, 11 Gray, 1. The record does not therefore show that this indictment was returned on the fourth day of July, and the ground of the motion to quash fails.
Exceptions overruled.