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141 Mass. 111

Commonwealth v. Magee

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided February 23, 1886

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1886-02-23

<p>At the trial of a complaint for keeping intoxicating liquors, with intent unlawfully to sell the same, a chemist and state assayer testified that he made an analysis of the liquor in question, which was beer, and found it to contain over three per cent of alcohol. Held, that it was competent for the jury to infer that the witness understood the purpose for which he was to analyze the beer, and that he meant to be understood as testifying that the beer contained more than three per cent of alcohol, as shown by an analysis made according to the provisions of the Pub. Sts. c. 100, § 27.</p>

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently April 1927

3 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1886-02-23

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By the Court.

¶1The court rightly instructed the jury, that, to convict the defendant of keeping for sale the beer in question, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that, at the time of the keeping for sale, it contained more than three per cent of alcohol, by volume, at sixty degrees Fahrenheit. Pub. Sts. e. 100, § 27.

¶2There was evidence which justified the jury in finding this fact. The testimony of the chemist and state assayer, who analyzed the beer taken from the defendant’s stock, justified the finding that, at the time it was taken, it contained more than three per cent of alcohol, by volume, at sixty degrees Fahrenheit. It is objected that the testimony of the witness does not state that he analyzed it at sixty degrees. It appeared that the beer was delivered by the defendant to an officer for the purpose of having it analyzed, to ascertain if the defendant was violating the statute; and that the officer took it to the witness, who was a state assayer accustomed to analyze liquors, to see if the statute was violated. The jury might reasonably infer that he understood the purpose for which he was to analyze the beer; and that, in his testimony, he meant to be understood as saying that, under an analysis according to the statute, it contained three and fifty-eight hundredths per cent of alcohol.

¶3The case was properly submitted to the jury.

¶4 Exceptions overruled.

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