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131 Mass. 417

Commonwealth v. Wait

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided September 28, 1881

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1881-09-28

Complaint, under the Sfc. of 1878, c. 172, addressed to a trial justice, and alleging that, on August 1, 1879, at Montague, the defendants “did unlawfully and wilfully use a sweep seine in the waters of the Connecticut River, said seine having a mesh which stretches less than five inches, against the peace,” etc. The defendant, being convicted before the trial justice, appealed to the Superior Court.

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently November 1934

9 state decisions

Relies on Commonwealth v. Barry · Commonwealth v. Hart

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1881-09-28

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Gray, C. J.

¶1The attestation by the magistrate at the end of the record was a sufficient attestation of all the proceedings, including the complaint and warrant. Commonwealth v. Ford, 14 Gray, 399. Commonwealth v. Barry, 115 Mass. 146. The case is thus distinguished from Commonwealth v. Doty, 2 Met. 18, on which the defendants rely, in which there was no attestation of the record.

¶2*419Taking the whole record together, the date of the warrant appears, by comparison with the date and jurat of the previous complaint to which it refers and on which it purports to have been issued, and with the succeeding statement in the record of the time when the defendants were brought in upon the warrant, to have been August 6, 1879. Donahoe v. Shed, 8 Met. 326. Neither the objection that the original warrant was without signature, nor the objection that the copy duly attested did not correspond with the original, was open after verdict. Commonwealth v. Hart, 123 Mass. 416. And it may be doubted whether, when the accused is before the court, any objection to the form of the warrant on which he has been brought in is open to him at any stage of the prosecution. 2 Hawk. c. 27, § 102. Stark. Crim. Pl. (2d ed.) 297. Ex parte Scott, 4 Man. & Ryl. 361; S. C. 9 B. & C. 446. Exceptions overruled.

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