Commonwealth v. Leighton

• Decision Date: 28 November 1885
• Citation: 6 N.E. 221,140 Mass. 305
• Parties: Commonwealth v. Walter H. Leighton
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

140 Mass. 305

6 N.E. 221

Commonwealth v. Walter H. Leighton

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

November 28, 1885

Argued November 23, 1885

Middlesex.

Complaint to the Police Court of Marlborough, for keeping and maintaining a common nuisance, to wit, a certain tenement in Marlborough, used for the illegal sale and illegal keeping of intoxicating liquors, on September 8, 1884, and on divers other days and times between that day and January 20, 1885. Trial in the Superior Court, before Gardner, J., who allowed a bill of exceptions, in substance as follows:

The defendant was a licensed innholder, and justified under licenses of the first and fourth classes to sell intoxicating liquors, duly issued to him by the selectmen of Marlborough.

There was evidence tending to show that the defendant's tenement consisted of a building used as a hotel, situated on the northerly side of Lincoln Street, in Marlborough, and abutting on the sidewalk; that the office and bar-room were both in the westerly end of the hotel, the latter being in therear of the former, and having an entrance from the rear of the hotel as well as from the office; that there was a wide passageway or carriageway leading northerly from Lincoln Street past the end of the hotel in which the office and bar-room were located, to dwelling-houses and a livery stable in the rear of the hotel; that the livery stable was frequented by many people who used said passageway in order to go from Lincoln Street to the stable; and that Lincoln Street was a thoroughfare over which people were constantly travelling, in teams and on foot.

One James E. Doak testified that he knew the defendant; that he was the proprietor of the hotel during the time covered by the complaint; that the witness lived opposite the hotel during that time; that in the bar-room he had seen a bar with the usual paraphernalia for keeping and selling intoxicating liquors; that there was a fence of wooden pickets running around the outer edge of the top of the bar and extending nearly to the ceiling, so that the bar could not be used for the delivery of articles therefrom; that the bar was open at the sides for the proprietor to go in and out; that there was a table in front of the bar; that he had seen many people go in and come out of the hotel every day, mostly on Sunday, and once he had counted fifty persons go into the hotel in one hour; that he saw many drunken people about the...