Case Name: Commonwealth vs. Ira P. Bacon
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1871-10
Citations: 108 Mass. 26
Docket Number: 
Parties: Commonwealth vs. Ira P. Bacon.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 108
Pages: 26–26

Head Matter:
Commonwealth vs. Ira P. Bacon.
The offence of keeping a common nuisance within the Gen. Sts. c. 87, §§ 6, 7, is local in its nature, and the proof of the city or town in which it is committed must correspond with the averment in the complaint or indictment.
Complaint on the Gen. Sts. c. 87, §§ 6, 7, to the municipal court of the city of Worcester, that Ira P. Bacon of Millbury, on April 1,1870, and divers other days and times between that day and February 20, 1871, did keep and maintain at the city of Worcester “a certain tenement, there situate,” then and there used for the illegal sale and illegal keeping of intoxicating liquor.
At the trial in the superior court, on appeal, before Pitman, J., the evidence tended to show that the defendant kept and maintained such a tenement in Millbury; and thereupon he contended that there was a fatal variance between the averments and the proofs; but the judge ruled otherwise and instructed the jury that the evidence, if believed, was sufficient to sustain the averments. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and the defendant alleged exceptions.
W. A. Williams, for the defendant.
G. Allen, Attorney General, for the Commonwealth.

Opinion:
By the Coubt.
The offence charged was local in its nature, and the proof of the city or town in which it was committed must correspond with the allegation in the complaint or indictment. Commonwealth v. Logan, 12 Gray, 136. Commonwealth v. Heffron, 102 Mass. 148.
Exceptions sustained