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81 Me. 63

Kaler v. Tufts

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine

Decided December 10, 1888

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine · decided 1888-12-10

On exceptions, by respondent to overruling bis demurrer, which is as follows : And the respondent comes and defends, &c., and says that the complainant ought not to have and maintain her said cause, because he says that the facts alleged in her said accusation and declaration and in the record of the proceedings thereon are not sufficient in law for her to-have and maintain the same : And he further says that the complainant ought not to have and maintain her said accusation…

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently August 1917

1 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1888-12-10

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Peters, C. J.

¶1This is a bastardy case, in which the respondent demurs to the declaration, and undertakes to show objections to it, which we think are without any legal force.

¶2The declaration avers that the child was begotten by the respondent “at the shop of M. M. Richards & Co.,” in Waldoboro in the county of Lincoln. It is contended that the word “at” is of equivocal meaning, and may imply either that the act was done in the shop, or outside of it. We think in this connection the word expresses the idea that the act was done inside the shop; and such would be, when descriptive of place, its common signification. It is frequently used in the statutes with that meaning, as in the following instances: Aldermen of cities shall be present “at some convenient place” to revise the list of voters. A notice to a juryman to serve in court, may be left “at his usual place of abode.” A summons to a defendant may be left “at his dwelling house” or place of last and usual abode. Deponents are to be summoned to attend “at a designated time and place,” to give depositions and adverse parties are to be notified to be *66present “at such times and places.” The point is virtually-decided in favor of the complainant in the case of Holbrook v. Knight, 67 Maine, 244.

¶3Another objection is that, whilst in her accusation on the preliminary examination she alleges that the act of seduction was accomplished upon her “on or about the 20th of July, 1886,” she avers in the declaration that it was “between the first and twentieth day of July, 1886.” We do not regard that as any substantial discrepancy or conflict in the pleadings.

¶4Demurrer overruled.

Walton, Daneorth, Virgin, Emery and Haskell, JJ., concurred.
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