Commonwealth v. Ayers

Decided June 16, 1874

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1874-06-16

Complaint under the Gen. Sts. c. 87, §§ 6, 7, charging that the defendant did on July 30, 1873, and on divers other days between that day, and January 30, 1874, keep and maintain a certain tenement In Boston, “ used for the illegal sale and illegal keeping of intoxicating liquors,” whereby the same was a common nuisance.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1874-06-16

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently February 1968

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

By the Court.

¶1The complaint charges the defendant with keeping and maintaining a nuisance on July 30, 1873, and on divers other days and times between that day and January 30, 1874. One of the essential points to be proved is the keeping of the shop. An admission that the defendant kept the shop open on any day during this time is "competent evidence against him. A plea of guilty to a complaint charging him with keeping it open is such an admission in the most solemn form. The only question here is as to the time to which the admission relates. The bill of exceptions states that it is January 19. If it were January 9 or 10, as stated in the copy of the complaint sent up with the bill of exceptions, it could make no difference.

¶2Motion to recommit and exceptions overruled.