Commonwealth v. Davis

Decided November 15, 1812

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1812-11-15

Indictment for a conspiracy, with others unknown, to compel one James W. Stearns to an unjust settlement of his accounts with said Davis, and to alter the nature and condition of an agreement between them, which was, that Stearns should find all the stock for a brewery, that Davis should afford his labor for five years from 1809, and that they should divide the net profits equally.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1812-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently June 1905

5 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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By the Court.

¶1The gist of the indictment is the conspiracy. The cheating is but aggravation. Judgment is not arrested, (a)

¶2[Unless the object of the- conspiracy be apparently criminal, it seems to be necessary to show an intention to accomplish it by improper means.—1 Stark. Grim. Pl. 156.—The only clause in the allegation of the conspiracy which can be thought to wear the aspect of criminality, is the conspiracy to compel Stearns to come to an unjust settlement of his accounts; but unjust as to whom is not stated. Non constat but it was to the defendant himself. — Ed.]