Commonwealth v. Maud M. Waterman &Amp; Another

• Decision Date: 09 January 1877
• Citation: 122 Mass. 43
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
• Parties: Commonwealth v. Maud M. Waterman & another

122 Mass. 43

Commonwealth v. Maud M. Waterman & another

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

January 9, 1877

Argued November 28, 1876 [Syllabus Material] [Syllabus Material] [Syllabus Material] [Syllabus Material] [Syllabus Material] [Syllabus Material] [Syllabus Material] [Syllabus Material] [Syllabus Material] [Syllabus Material] [Syllabus Material]

Suffolk. Indictment for conspiracy as follows:

"The jurors for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on their oath present, that Edgar R. Butterworth, Maud M. Waterman, Lizzie Douglass, Henry M. Ingraham and Moses S. Marshall, all of said Boston, on the sixteenth day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, at Boston aforesaid, with wicked intent to cause it falsely to appear of record that one Roderick D. Richardson was lawfully married to said Maud, and with intent to injure said Richardson thereby, and to prevent said Richardson (he, said Richardson, then and ever since being an unmarried man) from contracting any marriage, except with said Maud, and with intent to cheat and defraud, unlawfully and wickedly did combine, conspire, confederate and agree together that said Marshall, should then and there apply in person to Nicholas A. Apollonio, the registrar of births, deaths and marriages, duly appointed and qualified, in said city of Boston, to record all facts concerning marriages, and should falsely represent to said registrar that he, said Marshall, was said Roderick D. Richardson, (said Richardson then being a citizen of said Boston, other than said Marshall,) and should, in the office of said registrar in said Boston, give notice and state that said Richardson and said Maud were both then residents of said Boston, and that said Richardson and Maud then intended shortly to be joined in marriage at said Boston, and should request and obtain from said registrar the certificate of said notice in such case required by law to be given by said registrar; that thereafter at said Boston, said Butterworth (he, said Butterworth, being then and there a justice of the peace for said county of Suffolk, duly commissioned and qualified) should falsely, and before, and without any marriage between said Maud and said Richardson, write a certain certificate and writing under the hand of and signed by him, said Butterworth, as such justice, purporting to be a copy of a truthful and genuine record of a marriage, therein falsely to be alleged to have been solemnized by said Butterworth, as such justice at said Boston, between said Richardson and said Maud, pursuant to said notice, and said certificate to be obtained from said registrar in manner and form as aforesaid; and that said Douglass and Ingraham should thereupon falsely and publicly pretend to have been present at such marriage as witnesses thereto; and that said Maud should thereupon, without the knowledge of said Richardson, cause to be delivered such copy of record of marriage (signed by said Butterworth, as aforesaid) to said registrar, at his said office, for record, as and for a true and genuine copy of a truthful and genuine record of marriage, and that thereafter said Maud should publicly assume to be the wife of said Richardson, and that the said Butterworth, Douglass, Ingraham and Marshall should declare such assumption to be just and true within their own knowledge; and the jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, do further present that then and there, in pursuance of said conspiracy and agreement, said Marshall did then and there apply to said registrar and give said notice, and then and there pretend to be said Richardson, and did then and there receive such certificate of said notice from said registrar; and said Butterworth did thereafter, to wit, on said day, at said Boston, as such justice, write and sign such false copy of record as and for a true certificate and copy of a truthful record of marriage, and said Douglass and Ingraham did then and there publicly declare themselves to have been witnesses of such marriage, and said Maud did thereafter cause said writing, signed by said Butterworth, to be duly entered and recorded in the office of said registrar, at said Boston; and said Maud did thereafter publicly say and aver falsely, that she, said Maud, was the lawful wife of said Richardson, and said Butterworth, Douglass, Ingraham and Marshall did declare the same to be true as of their own knowledge.

"Whereas, in truth and in fact, said Marshall then and there was not Roderick D. Richardson, but said Richardson was a man other than said Marshall; and said Roderick did not then and there, nor did he at any time, intend to be joined in marriage with said Maud; nor did said Richardson desire said notice to be given to said registrar by said Marshall, or by any other person, or by himself, said Richardson; nor did he, said Richardson, at any time before said notice was given as aforesaid, know that the same was to be given; and whereas, in truth and fact, said Richardson was never joined in marriage by said Butterworth to said Maud, nor was he, said Richardson, ever married to any person whomsoever, nor was there any truthful record of any marriage between said Maud and said Richardson, all of which said Butterworth, Douglass, Waterman, Ingraham and Marshall, at the time they so combined, confederated and agreed together as aforesaid, and at the time they committed the acts hereinbe fore set forth, then and there all well knew. And so the jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, do say that said Butterworth, Marshall, Ingraham, Douglass and Waterman, at said Boston, on said sixteenth day of March, did unlawfully combine, conspire, confederate and agree together, by the means and in form aforesaid, to cause said Richardson falsely to appear of record to be married to said Maud, against the law, peace and dignity of said Commonwealth."

In the Superior Court, before the jury were empanelled, the defendants Waterman and Marshall, who alone were tried, moved to quash the indictment, for the following reasons: "1. No common purpose is alleged against the defendants. 2. No common and unlawful purpose is alleged against the said defendants; and no unlawful purpose is alleged; and no criminal object is alleged. 3. It does not appear from said indictment that the acts alleged, or any of them, were unlawful and criminal acts, and no unlawful and criminal act is alleged. 4. It does not aver that the defendants performed the acts alleged for the purpose of effecting any wrong or injury to any person, or class of persons, or for the purpose of effecting any wrong or injury whatever. 5. It does not aver that the acts alleged to have been performed did result in any wrong or injury to the public, or to any person or persons. 6. The purpose alleged, and the acts alleged, and as alleged, are insufficient to sustain any charge of conspiracy cognizable by the laws of this Commonwealth. 7. The indictment sets forth no illegal means agreed upon, or concerted by the parties, and does not charge a conspiracy to do a criminal act, or effect an object by any criminal means; and the allegations respecting the purpose and object and means are insufficient, and insufficiently stated. 8. The indictment is uncertain, indefinite, insufficient, and bad for duplicity, and does not set forth any criminal offence. 9. There is no allegation that Nicholas A. Apollonio had lawful authority to issue a marriage certificate, or the certificate which is alleged to have been issued by him. 10. There is no sufficient averment that said Butterworth was authorized to solemnize a marriage, and had legal authority so to do."

Aldrich, J., overruled the motion. The defendants were then tried, and a bill of exceptions, in substance as follows, was allowed:

Nicholas A. Apollonio testified that he was the city registrar of Boston, and produced the records of his office, showing that on March 13, 1875, a marriage license was issued to Roderick D. Richardson and Maud M. Waterman, both of Boston, (a notice of intention of marriage having been given on the same day,) and also the certificate of marriage between them, which recited that Roderick D. Richardson and Maud M. Waterman were joined in marriage at 18 Chapman Place, Boston, on March 16, 1875, by Edgar R. Butterworth, Justice of the Peace.

Franklin D. Rideout testified that he was a clerk in the office of the city registrar of Boston, that he saw the man who applied for the marriage license to Maud M. Waterman, and that he gave the name Roderick D. Richardson; that subsequently he was taken by a detective to identify the defendant Marshall, and he could not identify him as the man who took the license for said Roderick and Maud; but at this interview Marshall said to him that he was the man who applied for said license.

Roderick D. Richardson was asked whether or not he was ever married to said Maud. To this the defendants objected; but the judge allowed the question to be put. The witness said he never was married to said Maud; that he first saw her in a house of ill-fame on Oak Street, in Boston, where she then lived, and that he visited her there; that she moved from the house in Oak Street to a house in Warrenton Street, Boston, and he visited her there, and at other places, and paid her board and all her bills and expenses; that in October, 1874, he went with her to the house of Mr. and Mrs. Shorey, No. 18 Chapman Street, Boston, where she boarded, and where the witness went by the name of Waterman, and was there known only by that name, and as her husband; that she always spoke of him there, in the presence of others, as her husband, and of herself as his wife, and that he made no objection to it; that he visited her there in the evening, and was alone with her in her room;...