People v. Armlin
| Decision Date | 08 July 1959 |
| Citation | 189 N.Y.S.2d 179,6 N.Y.2d 231,160 N.E.2d 478 |
| Parties | , 160 N.E.2d 478 PEOPLE of State of New York, Appellate, v. William I. ARMLIN, Jr., Respondent. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
T. Paul Kane, Dist. Atty., Cobleskill, for appellant.
David B. Alford, Middleburg, for respondent.
Appellant has been convicted of the misdemeanor of reckless driving in violation of section 58 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law. He was arrested following an accident which occurred on August 24, 1957 at about six o'clock in the afternoon at the intersection of Route 145 and Gates Hill Road in the hamlet of Franklinton, in the Town of Broome in Schoharie County. The charge was preferred by indictment of a Grand Jury, the defendant was tried and found guilty by a jury in the County Court. On appeal the Appellate Division reversed the judgment of conviction and granted defendant's motion to dismiss the indictment upon the basis that it was insufficient in law, saying: (7 A.D.2d 942, 181 N.Y.S.2d 874)
Although 'unreasonableness' is a necessary constitutent of the crime, we think as did Justice Bergan at the Appellate Division, that the indictment pleads sufficient facts from which the characterization may be inferred that defendant's operation of this automobile 'unreasonably' interfered with the free and proper use of the highway, and 'unreasonably' endangered users thereof.
The language of the indictment is as follows: 'The defendant, in the County of Schoharie, on the 21st day of August, 1957 along the Public Highway Route #145 in the Town of Broome, Schoharie County, New York did drive a 1948 Buick Convertible Sedan in such a manner as to interfere with the free use of the public highway and did thereon endanger the users of the public highway, and that the said defendant did operate the said vehicle across the center line of said highway into the path of an approaching car without any warning and at a high rate of speed causing same to be compelled headlong into the vehicle approaching from the opposite direction on its own proper side of the highway.'
Prior to this statement of the facts charged as constituting a crime, the indictment accuses the defendant 'with the crime of Reckless Driving in violation of Section 58, Article 5, of the Vehicle and Traffic Law of the State of New York, a misdemeanor'. It seems to us that unreasonable interference with the free and proper use of the public highway and unreasonable...
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...the nature and character of the crime charged against him to enable the defendant to prepare a defense. (People v. Armlin, 6 N.Y.2d 231, 234, 189 N.Y.S.2d 179, 181, 160 N.E.2d 478, 480; People v. Farson, 244 N.Y. 413, 417, 155 N.E. 724, 725; People v. Williams, 243 N.Y. 162, 165, 153 N.E. 3......
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