Case Name: Commonwealth vs. James S. Wiggin
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1873-01
Citations: 111 Mass. 428
Docket Number: 
Parties: Commonwealth vs. James S. Wiggin.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 111
Pages: 428–429

Head Matter:
Commonwealth vs. James S. Wiggin.
When the copies sent by a trial justice to the Superior Court, in a criminal case, are not certified, the court may allow him to send new and certified copies at any time before th« trial.
Complaint to a trial justice in Middlesex for an assault and battery. The defendant was convicted, and appealed. The papers sent to the Superior Court were not attested by the trial justice. In the Superior Court, before a jury was empanelled, the defendant moved to quash the complaint, because there were no attested copies of the proceedings, but the judge, against the defendant’s objection, allowed the Commonwealth time to procure attested copies; and on the next day the trial justice filed entirely new copies of the proceedings. The defendant then moved to dismiss the complaint, but the motion was overruled. The defendant was tried, and the jury returned a verdict of guilty. The defendant alleged exceptions.
Gr. Sennott, for the defendant.
C. JR. Train, Attorney General, for the Commonwealth.

Opinion:
By the Court.
No time is prescribed by the Gen. Sts. c. 173, § 3, within which the trial justice before whom the original complaint was returnable was required to transmit to the Superior Court a copy of the proceedings. It was competent for that court to allow the trial justice to transmit amended and accurate copies of the record and papers at any time before the trial. Commonwealth v. Maguire, 14 Gray, 398.
¡Exceptions overruled.