People v. Jennings
| Decision Date | 21 August 1973 |
| Citation | 75 Misc.2d 408,347 N.Y.S.2d 818 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of New York v. Judith JENNINGS, Defendant. |
| Court | New York Villiage Court |
Delavan Smith, New York City, for defendant.
Walter Davis, Town Atty., Malverne, for People.
The defendant is charged with a violation of Section 1102 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law: 'No person shall fail or refuse to comply with any lawful order or direction of any police officer or other person duly empowered to regulate traffic.'
The facts do not seem to be in dispute. Testimony adduced at the trial shows that, on February 7, 1973, Marie Casucci was working as a school crossing guard on Route 22 in Millerton near the Webutuck Elementary School. She testified that the defendant stopped her vehicle on Route 22 at approximately 8:55 a.m. to discharge her children so that they might proceed along a drive to the school.
Casucci had told the defendant on at least two prior occasions not to stop her vehicle at that location to discharge her children. Casucci's direction to the defendant was based on her belief that the stopping of the vehicle created a dangerous situation.
Two issues must be decided here: (1) Is a school crossing guard a 'person duly empowered to regulate traffic'; and (2) was school crossing guard Casucci's order lawful?
It seems clear that a school crossing guard is empowered to regulate traffic:
The duly constituted authorities of any city, town or village or any county police department may designate, authorize and appoint such a number of persons as such authority shall deem necessary, and at such salaries as such authority shall deem advisable, as school crossing guards to aid in protecting school children going to and from school, and church crossing guards to aid in protecting persons going to and from places of worship, and for such purpose shall have power to control vehicular traffic within such municipality. General Municipal Law, Section 208--a.
Power to direct traffic necessarily means that authority to direct vehicle operators to do or not do certain things, provided that the order is lawful.
The next question is, of course, the meaning of 'lawful' under section 1102 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law. The prosecutor suggests in his memorandum that 'as long as the order given is one that does not require the operator to break the law, it is a lawful order.' I do not agree, because that could, in theory anyway, subject the passing motorist to the slightest whim of the crossing guard.
It seems to me that the touchstone of lawfulness in situations such as these is reasonableness. The function of the school crossing guard is to protect school children going to and from...
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Nasca v. Sgro
...to appoint school crossing guards who have the authority to enforce the traffic laws on public streets ( see People v. Jennings, 75 Misc.2d 408, 347 N.Y.S.2d 818), the plaintiff seeks the enforcement of a school's drop-off/pick-up procedure on school property. With respect to his cause of a......
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Town of New Hartford v. Village of New Hartford, 2004 NY Slip Op 24359 (NY 3/2/2005)
...function, pursuant to Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1102 it is a violation to disobey the lawful order of crossing guards. (People v. Jennings, 75 Misc 2d 408 [1973].) To add to the cacophony of confusion engendered by advisory opinions, in 1984 the New York Attorney General determined that it ......
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New Hartford v. New Hartford
...function, pursuant to Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1102 it is a violation to disobey the lawful order of crossing guards. (People v Jennings, 75 Misc 2d 408 [1973].) To add to the cacophony of confusion engendered by advisory opinions, in 1984 the New York Attorney General determined that it ......
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People v. Bassett
...is whether a school security officer is a person "duly empowered to regulate traffic" pursuant to Section 1102. In People v. Jennings, 75 Misc.2d 408, 347 N.Y.S.2d 818, the Court concluded that a school crossing guard was "duly empowered to regulate traffic" pursuant to Section 1102 and, th......