Com. v. Sacks
Decision Date | 26 February 1913 |
Citation | 100 N.E. 1019,214 Mass. 72 |
Parties | COMMONWEALTH v. SACKS. |
Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Henry P. Fielding, Deputy Asst. Dist. Atty., of Boston, for the commonwealth.
Isaac Gordon, of Boston, for defendant.
The question presented in this case is whether evidence of short weight in a sale made by a servant of the defendant in the defendant's absence warrants a jury in finding the defendant guilty of a violation of St. 1907, c. 394, § 1. That statute is in these words: 'Whoever, himself or by his servant or agent or as the servant or agent of another person, is guilty of giving false or insufficient weight or measure shall for a first offense,' etc.
There are a number of crimes (nearly all statutory) in which it has been held that the defendant acts at his peril and that the absence of a guilty intent is no defense. See for example Commonwealth v. Elwell, 2 Metc. 190, 35 Am. Dec. 398 (adultery); Commonwealth v. Mash, 7 Metc. 472 (bigamy); Commonwealth v. Boynton, 2 Allen, 160; Commonwealth v. Hallett, 103 Mass 452 ( ); Commonwealth v. Farren, 9 Allen, 489; Commonwealth v. Nichols, 10 Allen 199; Commonwealth v. Waite, 11 Allen, 264, 87 Am. Dec. 711; Commonwealth v. Evans, 132 Mass. 11 (selling adulterated milk); Commonwealth v. Raymond, 97 Mass. 567 ( ); Commonwealth v. Emmons, 98 Mass. 6 ( ); Commonwealth v. Wentworth, 118 Mass. 441 ( ); Commonwealth v. Kelley, 140 Mass. 441, 5 N.E. 834 ( ); Commonwealth v. Gray, 150 Mass. 327, 23 N.E. 47 (selling what turned out to be imitation butter without a descriptive wrapper: Commonwealth v. Vieth, 155 Mass. 442, 29 N.E. 577; Commonwealth v. Warren, 160 Mass. 533, 36 N.E. 308 (selling milk containing less than the required per cent. of milk solids); Commonwealth v. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, 112 Mass. 412; Commonwealth v. New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, 202 Mass. 394, 88 N.E. 764, 23 L. R. A. (N. S.) 350, 132 Am. St. Rep. 507, 16 Ann. Cas. 587 ( ); Commonwealth v. Mixer, 207 Mass. 141, 93 N.E. 249, 31 L. R. A. (N. S.) 467, 20 Ann. Cas. 1152 ( ). A fuller collection of these cases is to be found in Commonwealth v. Mixer, 207 Mass. 141, 142-143, 93 N.E. 249, 31 L. R. A. (N. S.) 467, 20 Ann. Cas. 1152.
In several of these cases the act was done by a servant in the absence of the defendant. See Commonwealth v Kelley, 140 Mass. 441, 5 N.E. 834; Commonwealth v. Gray, 150 Mass. 327, 23 N.E. 47; Commonwealth v. Warren, 160 Mass. 533, 36 N.E. 308. The most striking examples of the application of this doctrine are to be found in Commonwealth v. Warren, 160 Mass. 533, 36 N.E. 308, and Commonwealth v. New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, 202 Mass. 394, 88 N.E. 764, 23 L. R. A. (N. S.) 350, 132 Am. St. Rep. 507, 16 Ann. Cas. 587. In Commonwealth v. Warren, ubi supra, the keeper of a restaurant was held guilty because his servant in his absence sold a glass of milk containing less than 13 per cent. of milk solids, and the milk sold had been bought in good faith by the defendant from a dealer. In Commonwealth v. New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, ubi supra, the obstruction of the...
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