## Facts

- John Hunt and six other members of the Boston Journeymen Bootmakers’ Society (a labor association) were charged with criminal conspiracy.
- The society sought to maintain wage levels and work rules for journeymen bootmakers.
- The indictment alleged the defendants agreed not to work for employers who, after notice, employed nonmembers.
- The indictment further alleged the defendants agreed not to work for employers who violated the society’s by-laws unless a penalty was paid to the society.
- The defendants were alleged to have pressured a master cordwainer to discharge a journeyman who refused to pay a penalty assessed under the society’s rules.
- The Boston Municipal Court convicted the defendants of conspiracy, and the case was reviewed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

## Issues

1. Whether a workers’ combination to influence wages and employment conditions is inherently a criminal conspiracy under Massachusetts common law.
2. Whether the indictment sufficiently alleged an indictable conspiracy by pleading an unlawful objective or unlawful means with adequate specificity.

## Decision

- The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (Shaw, C.J.) reversed the convictions.
- The court held that labor combinations are not inherently illegal; their legality depends on whether they pursue lawful purposes by lawful means.
- The court held the indictment failed to state an indictable conspiracy because it did not clearly allege either an unlawful purpose or unlawful means.
- Characterizing conduct with conclusory adjectives (e.g., “unlawful” or “pernicious”) did not cure the indictment’s failure to plead facts constituting a crime.

## Legal Principles

- An indictable common-law conspiracy requires a combination: (1) to accomplish a criminal or unlawful purpose, or (2) to accomplish a lawful purpose by criminal or unlawful means.
- A concerted effort that may economically harm another (such as reducing a business’s profits) is not criminal solely for that reason; lawfulness turns on the lawfulness of the means used.
- If the alleged conspiracy is to pursue an unlawful objective, the indictment must set out that objective fully and clearly.
- If the alleged conspiracy is to pursue a lawful objective by unlawful means, the indictment must set out the unlawful means intended to be used.
- An indictment must directly aver facts sufficient to constitute the offense; conclusory labels do not substitute for factual allegations of illegality.

## Conclusion

The court vacated the conspiracy convictions because the indictment did not plead unlawful ends or unlawful means, and it clarified that worker associations and collective economic pressure are not per se criminal under Massachusetts common law absent independently unlawful objectives or methods.


Commonwealth v. Hunt, 45 Mass. (4 Met.) 111 (Mass. 1842)