¶1In 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
101 Mass. 33
Commonwealth v. Hines
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Decided January 15, 1869
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1869-01-15
Indictment for keeping a disorderly house. The caption of the indictment was in these words: “ Norfolk, ss.
Key passage — most relied on by later courts
““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 of-fence to have been committed. Commonwealth v. Stone, 3 Gray, 453 .””
quoted by 1 later decision, including Brown v. Hudspeth
Cited in Bouvier (1914)’s definition of “Captation”
Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know
Decided 1869-01-15
How this case has been cited
Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently May 1939
1 federal appellate · 6 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
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