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105 Mass. 588

Commonwealth v. Strupney

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided November 15, 1870

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1870-11-15

Indictment for breaking and entering the dwelling-house of John A. Lowell in the night time, with intent to steal, and stealing therefrom a silver plated pitcher of the value of six dollars.

Cited in Cyclopedic (1922)’s definition of “Burglary”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1870-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently July 1996

10 state decisions

201870188018901900191019201930194019501960197019801990decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Ames, J.

¶1An entrance into a dwelling-house, through a window or door that was left partly open, is not the forcible breaking and entering necessary to constitute the crime of burglary. It should appear “ that the house was secured in the ordinary way, so that by the carelessness of the owner, in leaving the door or window open, the party accused of burglary be not tempted to enter.” Commonwealth v. Stephenson, 8 Pick. 354. In Commonwealth v. Steward, 7 Dane Ab. 136, it was held in 1789, that ,f if a window be a little pushed up ” it is not a breaking to obtain entrance by lifting it. higher. See also Commonwealth v. Hays, Ib. The English authorities are to the same effect. Thus in Rex v. Hyams, 7 C. & P. 441, it was held not to be a breaking, where the prisoner threw up a sash which had been raised a couple of inches, and so effected an entrance. And in 1827 it was held by the twelve judges of England, in Rex v. Smith, 1 Moody, 178, that there was no decision under which, in case of a sash partly open but not sufficiently open to admit a person, the raising of it so as to admit a person could be considered a breaking; and that in this respect the court ought not to go beyond decided cases.

¶2The instructions of the presiding judge at the trial were not in conformity to this rule, and were therefore incorrect.

¶3Exceptions sustained.

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