Commonwealth v. Gillespie

Allegheny County Court of Quarter Sessions

Decided January 4, 1892

Allegheny County Court of Quarter Sessions · decided 1892-01-04

Nos. 226, 227 October Term 1891, Sup. Ct.; court below, Nos. 34, 35 March Term 1891, Q. S. On May 19,1891, appeals were allowed, from the summary convictions of W. M. Gillespie and Albert Varner before an alderman, on informations charging, severally, that the defendants, “ on May 10, 1891, the said day being the Lord’s day, commonly called Sunday, did and performed worldly employment and business in said county, the same not being the work of necessitj’- or charity,” in…

Cited by 2 later decisions — most recently February 1914

2 state decisions

Cited in Bouvier (1914)’s definition of “J.Q.B”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1892-01-04

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Per Curiam :

¶1Whether pumping an oil well on the Sabhath is a work of necessity, within the meaning of the act of April 22, 1794, is a question of fact; and it has been decided against the defendants by the learned judge of the court below. It is idle, and a great waste of time, to bring such questions here upon a certiorari. The act of April 26,1855, P. L. 321, under which the fines *548were imposed in these cases, does not provide for an appeal; and upon the writ of certiorari, as we have said in at least a hundred cases, we cannot review the evidence.

¶2Judgment affirmed.

¶3See § 3. act of April 26, 1855, P. L. 322.