Case Name: Commonwealth vs. George L. Mitchell
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1874-06-16
Citations: 115 Mass. 141
Docket Number: 
Parties: Commonwealth vs. George L. Mitchell.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 115
Pages: 141–141

Head Matter:
Commonwealth vs. George L. Mitchell.
Suffolk.
June 15. — 16, 1874.
Colt & Endicott, JJ., absent.
An indictment under the Gen. Sts. c. 87, §§ 6, 7, charging the maintaining of a common nuisance on a day certain, and for six months next preceding said day, il supported hy proof that the defendant maintained the nuisance during any part of the time covered hy the indictment.
Indictment.under the Gen. Sts. c. 87, §§ 6, 7, charging the defendant with keeping a common nuisance, to wit, a tenement in the city of Boston, used for the illegal sale and illegal keeping for sale of intoxicating liquors, on the sixth day of January, 1874, and for six months next preceding said sixth day of January.
At the trial in the Superior Court, before Wilkinson, J., the government offered evidence tending to show that the defendant was in the tenement on October 17,1873, and on January 3,1874, but there was no evidence that the defendant kept said place subsequent to January 3, 1874, nor that he sold any intoxicating liquors subsequent to October 17, 1873, although liquors were found there. The defendant requested the court to rule that the jury should return a verdict of not guilty, unless they should find, on the evidence, that the defendant kept the place on the sixth day of January, 1874, as charged in the indictment. The presiding judge refused so to rule, and instructed the jury that they should convict if they found that the defendant maintained the tenement for the purpose named in the indictment, during any part of the time covered by the indictment. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and the defendant excepted.
C. R. Lincoln, for the defendant.
C. R. Train, Attorney General, & W. G. Colburn, Assistant Attorney General, for the Commonwealth.

Opinion:
By the Court.
Proof that the defendant kept and maintained the tenement for the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors, during any part of the time named in the indictment, warranted a conviction. The instructions given were correct. Commonwealth v. Wood, 4 Gray, 11. Wells v. Commonwealth, 12 Gray, 326. Commonwealth v. Higgins, 16 Gray, 19. Commonwealth v. Gallagher, 1 Allen. 592. Commonwealth v. Cogan, 107 Mass. 212. Exceptions overruled.