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169 Mass. 354

Commonwealth v. Coates

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided October 21, 1897

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1897-10-21

Complaint, for keeping an unlicensed dog. The complainfc alleged “ that Henry T. Coates of Leominster in said county of Worcester on the first day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven at Leominster in said county of Worcester and on divers other days and times between that day and the nineteenth day of July, A. D. 1897, at said Leominster unlawfully did keep a certain male dog, said dog not being then and there registered, numbered,…

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently July 1899

1 state decisions

Relies on Commonwealth v. Palmer

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1897-10-21

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Allen, J.

¶1The motion to quash was rightly overruled. It was not necessary to charge the keeping of the dog on or before the 30th day of April. If one at any time beeps a dog which is not registered, numbered, described, and licensed according to law, he is subject to a penalty. Pub. Sts. c. 102, §§ 80, 87. The complaint charged such a keeping, and it was not necessary to go further in the averments, and set forth the particular time when such keeping began. As a matter of pleading, the general averment negativing registration, etc., according to law, was sufficient. Commonwealth v. Thompson, 2 Allen, 507. See also Commonwealth v. Palmer, 134 Mass. 537. Ve^ many decisions under the statutes relating to intoxicating liquors are to a similar effect.

¶2It appeared that the defendant was the owner and keeper of the dog before the 1st day of May. It was therefore his duty to have the dog registered on or before the 30th day of April. The defendant now suggests that evidence of keepership outside of the time alleged cannot be considered. No such question appears to have been raised at the trial; but the evidence was clearly *356competent in order to show that he was not authorized to keep the dog on the 1st day of May, for want of a license previously obtained.

¶3We have no occasion to consider whether an unlicensed dog bought on the 1st day of May must be registered and licensed before the 30th of the ensuing April.

¶4Exceptions overruled.

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