Commonwealth v. Corkery

• Decision Date: 02 March 1900
• Citation: 175 Mass. 460,56 N.E. 711
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. CORKERY.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

175 Mass. 460

56 N.E. 711

COMMONWEALTH v. CORKERY.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Middlesex.

March 2, 1900

COUNSEL

Fred N. Wier, Dist. Atty., for the Commonwealth.

Augustine J. Daly, for defendant.

OPINION

HOLMES C.J.

This was a complaint for the larceny of milk cans. The third count was for stealing cans of the property of the Boston Dairy Company. The fourth was for stealing cans of the property of H. P. Hood & Sons. At the trial the other elements of the crime were proved, and the government was allowed, subject to exception, to introduce certificates of the commissioner of corporations purporting to be copies of certified copies of the charter of the Boston Dairy Company as a corporation under the laws of Maine, and the charter of H. P. Hood & Sons as a corporation under the laws of New Hampshire. According to the certificate, copies of these charters were filed with the commissioner by the corporation concerned in pursuance of St. 1884, c. 330, § 3, and the copies offered were copies of these copies.

The only objection urged is that the copy is not made evidence by St. 1884, c. 330, § 1, the act concerning foreign corporations having a usual place of business in this commonwealth. It may be assumed that that section does not extend to this matter. But by section 3 of the same act such corporations are required to file copies of their charters with the commissioner of corporations; and by Pub. St. c 169, § 70, copies of documents in the executive and other departments of the commonwealth, or, by St. 1889, c. 387, of any city or town, duly authenticated by the officer having charge of the same, shall be competent evidence in all cases equally with the originals thereof, if the genuineness of the signature of such officer is attested by the secretary of the commonwealth under its seal. The word 'originals' means the documents in the hands of the certifying officer whatever they may be. Taking this last with the requirement that copies of the charters shall be filed with the commissioner, we are of opinion that one purpose of the statutes is to make the copy deposited with the commissioner a new source, so to speak, and primary evidence (subject, of course, to correction) for the purposes of this state. The duly-authenticated certificate of the commissioner establishes the fact that the document in his hands is what it purports to be, and the copy, although a copy of a copy, has the same effect as the document itself.

We draw the whole conclusion from the statutes, but, even if the effect of Pub. St. c. 169, § 70, were only to give the copy of the copy the same effect as the first copy bearing the attestation of the secretary of state for Maine or New Hampshire, with the seal of the state, we should be of opinion that the evidence was admissible. The seal of the state and the signature of the secretary of state accompanying it are self-proving. 1 Greenl. Ev. §§ 4, 479. That the first copy did bear that attestation and seal is established by the certificate, just as the execution of a deed is proved in a proper case by a certified copy from the registry. Com. v. Richardson, 142 Mass. 71, 74, 7 N.E. 26; Gragg v. Learned, 109 Mass. 167; Com v. Emery, 2 Gray, 80, 81. For all that appears, evidence may have been put in that by the statutes of Maine and New Hampshire the certificates of organization are part of the public records of the states granting them, and are kept in the office of the secretary of state. Rev. St. Me. c. 48, § 19, and St. 1893, c. 185, § 1; Pub. St. N.H. c. 147, § 4. In the absence of evidence, these facts might be presumed as a well-known practice, coupled with the certificate of the officials to that effect. A party not supposed to have the original documents is not called upon to produce them from another state, where they may be presumed to be, when their effect comes in question in this collateral way. As a copy is...