Case Name: Commonwealth vs. John S. Bellows
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1874-06-16
Citations: 115 Mass. 139
Docket Number: 
Parties: Commonwealth vs. John S. Bellows.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 115
Pages: 139–139

Head Matter:
Commonwealth vs. John S. Bellows.
Suffolk.
June 15. —16, 1874.
Colt & Endicott, JJ., absent.
Copies of the record of a Municipal Court furnished on appeal to the Superior Court need not be under seal.
Complaint to the Municipal Court of the city of Boston, charging the defendant with an unlawful sale of intoxicating liquors.
At the trial in the Superior Court, before Wilkinson, J., and before the jury were empanelled, the defendant moved to dismiss the complaint, because it appeared from the copies that the judgment in the court below, and the complaint, were not under the seal of that court, and also because the copy of the judgment, and of the complaint, were not certified to be true copies, under the seal of the court. This motion was overruled. After verdict the defendant moved in arrest of judgment, for the causes stated in his motion to dismiss. This motion in arrest was also overruled. The defendant excepted.
G. Sennott, for the defendant.
W. G. Colburn, Assistant Attorney General, (C. R. Train, Attorney General, with him,) for the Commonwealth.

Opinion:
By the Court.
It .was admitted at the argument that the original complaint and judgment need not have a seal; and it is well settled that the attestation required none. Commonwealth v. Downing, 4 Gray, 29. Commonwealth v. Cavey, 97 Mass. 541,