Commonwealth v. Burns

Decided September 15, 1857

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1857-09-15

<p>A sale of intoxicating liquor on credit is a sale within the meaning of St. 1865, c. 21a, § 15.</p> <p>The papers transmitted by a justice of the peace to the court of common pleas in a criminal case were a complaint, a record of the proceedings before the justice, signed by him, a warrant and officer’s return, and a memorandum of a recognizance, signed by the justice. The warrant and the officer’s return were each certified by the justice to be a true copy. Held, that, for want of an attestation of the conviction, the record was not sufficiently certified.</p>

Decided 1857-09-15

Dewey, J.

¶11. We see no ground for sustaining the exception that the sale would not be in violation of the St. of 1855, c. 215, if the payment was to be made at a future day, or the price charged in an account with the vendee.

¶22. But the motion in arrest of judgment must prevail. The jurisdiction, being wholly appellate, must appear upon the papers filed in the case. Among the necessary papers there must be a copy of the conviction, duly certified as a true copy by the magistrate. Rev. Sts. c. 138, § 2. No such certified copy is found in the papers returned to the court of common pleas in the present case. No judgment will therefore be entered upon the verdict; but the same will be set aside, and the case remitted to the court of common pleas for further proceedings, if the proper certified copies shall be filed in the case. Commonwealth v. Doty, 2 Met. 18. Exceptions sustained.