Case Name: Commonwealth vs. Peter Hines
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1869-01
Citations: 101 Mass. 33
Docket Number: 
Parties: Commonwealth vs. Peter Hines.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 101
Pages: 33–34

Head Matter:
Commonwealth vs. Peter Hines.
An indictment which purports in its caption to have been found “ on the first Monday of , in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty- but charges an offence as committed on January 1,1868, “ and on divers other days and times between that day and the day of the finding of this indictment,” may be shown by the clerk’s certificate indorsed thereon to have been returned and presented on September 11, 1868.
Indictment for keeping a disorderly house. The caption of the indictment was in these words: “ Norfolk, ss. At the superior court begun and holden at Dedham, within and for the county of Norfolk, on the first Monday of , in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred" and sixty- .” The offence was alleged to have been committed on January 1,1868, 11 and on divers other days and times between that day and the day of the finding of this indictment.” The certificate of the clerk, indorsed on the indictment, was as follows: “ Norfolk, ss. On this eleventh day of September, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, this indictment was returned to and presented in said superior court, by the grand jury, and ordered to be filed.”
In the superior court the defendant moved to quash the indictment, because there was no sufficient caption thereto, because it did not appear at what term of the court the indictment was found, and because the time when the offence was committed was not sufficiently charged in the indictment. The motion was overruled, and the defendant, being convicted, alleged exceptions.
W. Colburn, for the defendant.
C. Allen, Attorney General, for the Commonwealth.

Opinion:
Gray, J.
In our practice, a caption is indeed affixed to every indictment, and returned with it by the grand jury; and is so far a part of the indictment that it may be referred to in order to ascertain the county and state in and for which the indictment is found. Commonwealth v. Edwards, 4 Gray, 1. Commonwealth v. Fisher, 7 Gray, 492. But defects in the title of the court as stated in the caption may be supplied by reference to the certificate indorsed by the clerk upon the indictment at the time of its return into court. Commonwealth v. Mullen, 13 Allen, 551. In the matter of time, especially, the caption is not the sole evidence; for the caption is usually entitled as of the first day of the term; and yet an indictment with such a caption may be presented by a grand jury impanelled, and for an offence committed, since that day, and may be proved by referring to the clerk's certificate thereon to have been returned after the day on which it alleges the offence to have been committed. Commonwealth v. Stone, 3 Gray, 453. Commonwealth v. Colton, 11 Gray, 1. In this case, the certificate of the clerk specifies the time of the return and presentment of the indictment, and removes the uncertainty arising from the inspection of the caption alone. Exceptions overruled