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114 Mass. 259

Commonwealth v. Dowling

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided November 15, 1873

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1873-11-15

Complaint to the Municipal Court of the city of Boston, under Gen. Sts. e. 87, § 7, charging the defendant with keeping and maintaining a tenement used for the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Aldrieh,, J., it appeared that the defendant sold intoxicating liquor in the premises described in the complaint, during the time set forth in the complaint, sometimes in the presence, and sometimes in the absence, of the proprietor.

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently April 1891

6 state decisions

Relies on Commonwealth v. Kimball

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1873-11-15

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Ames, J.

¶1The exceptions find that the defendant sold intoxicating liquor in the described premises, sometimes in the pres-: ence of the proprietor, and sometimes also in his absence. If so, it was immaterial that he was merely a bar-tender, having no pecuniary interest in the business, and acting only under direction of the proprietor. If as a bar-tender or servant of the proprietor, he, in the absence of the proprietor, made sales of intoxicating liquors on the premises, he could lawfully be convicted of so aiding in the keeping and maintaining of the tenement for the “illegal uses charged that he might be found guilty. In this state of the evidence, it does not appear that the case required any more formal definition of the aiding and assisting that would render him liable. Commonwealth v. Gannett, 1 Allen, 7. Commonwealth v. Kimball, 105 Mass. 465. As the verdict was finally affirmed by the jury as a general verdict of guilty, the alleged irregularity (if any) was effectually remedied.

¶2Exceptions overruled.

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