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178 Mass. 121

Commonwealth v. Tate

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1901-03-01

<p>At the trial on a complaint for keeping intoxicating liquors with intent unlawfully to sell the same, it appeared that the defendant was a retail druggist licensed as a pharmacist and also holding a liquor license of the sixth class authorizing him to sell intoxicating liquors for medicinal, mechanical and chemical purposes not to be drunk on the premises. Officers, entering the defendant’s premises on a Sunday, found a number of men in a back room connected with the defendant’s drug store, several of them having bottles of beer in their hands, and in a closet of the same room which was unlocked by the defendant were found a washtub containing a large piece of ice and in the water surrounding it twenty-seven bot-ties of beer, and in a refrigerator eighteen more bottles of beer, and there were in all in the closet about fifty-one gallons of beer in four hundred and ten bottles and two hundred and sixty empty beer bottles, one and a half gallons of whiskey in three jugs and thirty gallons of whiskey in a barrel, one quart of wine, two gal-Ions of rum, one gallon of gin, and one pint of sherry, also on top of one of the barrels a tumbler and a glass. Held, that there was sufficient evidence to warrant the jury in finding that the defendant kept intoxicating liquors with intent unlawfully to sell the same.</p> <p>If a defendant in a criminal case which comes to the Superior Court on appeal has a right to have a separate copy of the complaint against him in the court below go to the jury without the judgment entered on it, in order that his case may not be prejudiced by the jury’s knowing of his conviction in the court below, this practice is sufficiently complied with by giving the jury a copy of the complaint and record of conviction with a blank paper pasted over the record of conviction.</p>

Relies on Commonwealth v. McNeese · Commonwealth v. Mandeville · Commonwealth v. Berry

Decided 1901-03-01

Loring, J.

¶1In this case the government introduced evidence that the defendant was a druggist, and that on a certain Sunday in the middle of July several officers entered the prisoner’s premises under a search warrant and found, in a room which was a part of those premises and which was back of the room used as a drug store, a number of men, several of whom had bottles containing lager beer in their hands ; that in the corner of this room there was a closet, which was unlocked by the prisoner, and in it the officers found a washtub containing a large piece of ice, some water, and twenty-seven bottles full of lager beer; and also a refrigerator in which were eighteen more bottles of beer. That in this closet there were in all about fifty-one gallons of beer in four hundred and ten bottles, full or partly empty, two hundred and sixty empty beer bottles, one and one-half gallons of whiskey, in three jugs, thirty gallons of whiskey in a barrel, one quart of wine, two gallons of rum, one gallon of gin, and one pint of sherry; and also that on top of one of the barrels there was a tumbler and a glass something like a “ Moxie ” glass.

¶2This was sufficient evidence to warrant the jury in finding that the prisoner kept intoxicating liquors with intent unlawfully to sell the same. Commonwealth v. Berry, 109 Mass. 366, and cases there cited. Commonwealth v. McNeese, 156 Mass. 231.

¶3In this case, the government contended that the jury would be warranted in finding on these facts that the beer in the hands of the persons found in the room had been illegally sold. We think that contention was right. Though the prisoner was on the *125other side of the door when the officers entered, we think the jury were warranted in finding that the beer in the bottles found in the hands of the men when the officers entered had been delivered to them to be used as a beverage with the prisoner’s knowledge, and being delivered in a store, the jury were warranted in finding that it had been illegally sold. Commonwealth v. Mandeville, 142 Mass. 469.

¶4The prisoner’s seventh request was sufficiently complied with by the instructions given by the court. Commonwealth v. Canny, 158 Mass. 210.

¶5Even if the prisoner had a right to what is given him by the practice referred to in Commonwealth v. Keenan, 140 Mass. 481, in submitting to the jury a separate copy of the complaint, so that bis case will not be prejudiced by the jury’s knowing what the judgment of the lower court was (which we do not intimate to be the case) he cannot complain of the action which was taken in the case at bar.

¶6 Exceptions overruled.

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