Case Name: Commonwealth vs. James E. Bray
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1875-02-15
Citations: 117 Mass. 150
Docket Number: 
Parties: Commonwealth vs. James E. Bray.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 117
Pages: 150–151

Head Matter:
Commonwealth vs. James E. Bray.
Suffolk.
February 1. — 15, 1875.
Colt & Morton, JJ., absent.
Under the Gen. Sts. c. 173, § 3, the copy of the conviction and proceedings before a police or district court, from which the defendant appeals, is properly transmitted by its clerk to the Superior Court without an order from the lower court authorizing its transmission.
Complaint to the District Court of East Norfolk, on the Gen. Sts. e. 87, §§ 6, 7, for keeping and maintaining a tenement used for the illegal sale and illegal keeping of intoxicating liquors.
At the trial in the Superior Court, to which the copy of the conviction and other proceedings in the case were transmitted, authenticated by the signature of the clerk of the court, the defendant, before the jury were empanelled, moved to dismiss the complaint, because the judge of the District Court, or the District Court, had not made a copy of the conviction and other proceedings in the case, and transmitted them, together with the recog nizance, to the clerk of the Superior Court, in accordance with the Gen. Sts. e. 173, § 3 ; and because, from the papers made and transmitted, it did not appear that they were made and transmitted by the order of the justice, or of the District Court. Pit-man, J., overruled the motion. The jury returned a verdict of guilty; and the defendant alleged exceptions.
J. L. Eldridge, for the defendant.
The District Court of East Norfolk is established by the St. of 1872, e. 289. The Gen. Sts, c. 173, § 3, apply to said court, and require it to make a copy of the conviction and other proceedings in the case, and transmit the same, together with the recognizance, to the clerk of the court appealed to.
C. R. Train, Attorney General, for the Commonwealth.

Opinion:
Devens, J.
Upon the conviction and appeal of the defendant, it was for the District Court to transmit a copy of such conviction and the proceedings in the case to the Superior Court. Gen. Sts. c. 173, § 3. This was done when the copy of the record reciting them was transmitted by the clerk of the District Court, as its recording officer, in the performance of the appropriate duty of his office; and no order from the District Court that he should transmit this copy was necessary. Exceptions overruled.