People v. Kupprat
| Decision Date | 28 May 1959 |
| Citation | 6 N.Y.2d 88,160 N.E.2d 38,188 N.Y.S.2d 483 |
| Parties | , 160 N.E.2d 38 PEOPLE of the State of New York, Appellant, v. John KUPPRAT, Respondent. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Frank D. O'Connor, Dist. Atty., Long Island City (Benj. J. Jacobson, Long Island City, of counsel), for appellant.
Bernard Wolf and David D. Erroll, New York City, for respondent.
The defendant, located quite close to a cemetery, St. Michael's, in Astoria, Queens, manufactures and sells gravestones and monuments. He keeps his office open on Sundays to arrange for the sale of gravestones and, on January 5, 1958, he sold two monuments to two customers, preparing and executing the essential contracts for these sales. He does not manufacturing on Sunday, although customers come to his place to obtain prices and enter into contracts of sale. Charged with offering and selling monuments on the day in question, in violation of section 2147 of the Penal Law, the defendant was found guilty and fined $5. The Appellate Division, reversing on the law and facts, dismissed the complaint and a Judge of this court granted leave to appeal.
and then lists a number of articles which are excepted from the operation of the statute. Admittedly, gravestones and monuments are not among such items. As the Appellate Division has observed, the defendant's sales of gravestones and memorials for deceased persons did not in fact constitute 'serious interruptions of the repose and religious liberty of the community' (180 N.Y.S.2d 629), but that is here beside the point. The simple fact is that the Legislature, by enacting section 2147, has announced that all sales except those specifically excepted in the statute itself are forbidden, even though they may not in truth disturb Sunday's rest or repose or religious liberty. See e. g., People v. East Coast Attic & Basement Co., 4 N.Y.2d 954, 175 N.Y.S.2d 825, affirming 10 Misc.2d 378, 174 N.Y.S.2d 789; People v. Moses, 140 N.Y. 214, 215-217, 35 N.E. 499, 500; People ex rel. Bender v. Joyce, 174 App.Div. 574, 579-580, 161 N.Y.S. 771, 775-776; N.Y.Legis.Doc., 1952, No. 1, p. 26; Note, 6 Syracuse L.Rev. 362, 364-365.
It is urged upon us that Many families desiring to purchase a stone or other memorial can do so only on Sundays, when they take the occasion to visit the graves of their departed. This may well be so, but, it too is beside the point. As already indicated we deal with a subject concerning which the Legislature has spoken and, since the statute does not exclude the sale of...
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