Case Name: Commonwealth vs. John C. Sullivan
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1877-09-26
Citations: 123 Mass. 221
Docket Number: 
Parties: Commonwealth vs. John C. Sullivan.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 123
Pages: 221–222

Head Matter:
Commonwealth vs. John C. Sullivan.
Hampshire.
Sept. 25. — 26, 1877.
Endicott & Lord, JJ., absent.
A witness who testifies of a sale of intoxicating liquor by the defendant may, for the purpose of fixing the time, state that he testified of the same sale at the preliminary hearing before a magistrate.
Indictment on the Gen. Sts. c. 87, §§ 6, 7, for keeping and maintaining on May 1,1876, and on divers other days between that day and December 21,1876, a certain tenement in Northampton for the illegal sale and illegal keeping of intoxicating liquors. Trial in the Superior Court on June 20, 1877, before Bacon, J., who allowed a bill of exceptions in substance as follows:
One of the witnesses for the government testified that he had bought liquor at the defendant’s house, could not say when he bought it, but thought he bought it within a year; and that there was a hearing before the magistrate. The district attorney asked the following question: “Whether at the time you speak of, that you testified before the magistrate, you testified of the purchase of this same one half pint of gin? The defendant objected, but the judge allowed the question to be put for the purpose of fixing the time of the sale. Other witnesses testified to this sale, and fixed the time of it.
The jury returned a verdict of guilty; and the defendant alleged exceptions.
II. II. Bond, for the defendant.
O. B. Train, Attorney General, for the Commonwealth.

Opinion:
By the Court.
The evidence was rightly admitted for the purpose of fixing the time of the sale, because it tended to show that the sale was made before the defendant was bound over by the magistrate, and consequently before the indictment was found. Exceptions overruled.