People v. Monahan

• Decision Date: 17 November 1931
• Parties: PEOPLE v. MONAHAN.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

257 N.Y. 388

178 N.E. 670

PEOPLE

v.MONAHAN.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Nov. 17, 1931.

Jack Monahan was indicted for maintaining a public nuisance. An order sustaining defendant's demurrer and dismissing the indictment was affirmed by the Appellate Division (233 App. Div. 16, 251 N. Y. S. 492), and the People appeal by permission.

Affirmed.

Appeal from Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third department.

Arthur G. Adams, Dist. Atty., of Ithaca, for the People.

Bert T. Baker, of Ithaca, for respondent.

CRANE, J.

The defendant was indicted by the grand jury of Tompkins county for an alleged violation of section 1530 of the Penal Law (Consol. Laws. c. 40), charged with maintaining a public nuisance in the village of Groton, Tompkins county, N. Y. The County Court dismissed the indictment for lack of jurisdiction, and the question presented is whether section 182 of the Village Law (Consol. Laws, c. 64) gives exclusive jurisdiction over misdemeanors to the police justice of the village.

Inferior courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction may be established by the Legislature. Courts of Special Sessions and inferior local courts of similar character shall have such jurisdiction of offenses of the grade of misdemeanors as may be prescribed by law, and the Legislature may authorize them to try such offenses without a jury. N. Y. Const. art. 6, § 18.

The Village Law, by section 182, defines the criminal jurisdiction of the village police justice. It reads: ‘§ 182. Criminal jurisdiction of village police justice. The police justice of a village may hold a court of special sessions therein and shall have in the first instance exclusive jurisdiction to hear, try and determine charges of any misdemeanor committed within such village subject to the right of removal, as provided by the code of criminal procedure, to a court having authority to inquire by the intervention of a grand jury into offenses committed within the county. Such police justice shall have exclusive jurisdiction to take the examination of a person charged with the commission in such village of a felony and also to hear, try, and determine charges against a person of being a vagrant or disorderly person within such village, or of having committed disorderly conduct therein; and to take such proceedings in either of such cases as may be taken by a justice of the peace, or magistrate with all the powers and subject to all the duties and liabilities of same. * * *’

Prior to the amendment made by the Laws of 1927, c. 650, § 26, this section read: ‘The police justice of a village may hold a court of special sesssions therein and shall have in the first instance exclusive jurisdiction to hear, try and determine charges of a misdemeanor committed within such village and triable by a court of special sessions, subject to the right of removal,’ etc.

And as to the examinations, it read: ‘To take the examination of a person charged with the commission in such village of a crime not triable by a court of special sessions.’

The change made was by substituting ‘any misdemeanor’ for ‘a misdemeanor’ and striking out the words ‘not triable by a court of special sessions.’ And as to examination, the change made was by taking out the words ‘of a crime not triable by a court of special sessions,’ and substituting the words ‘of a felony.’

Thus the Legislature extended to the police justice of the village the jurisdiction possessed by the Special Sessions in cities of trying all misdemeanors, and restricting him to preliminary hearings in felony cases.

Since the amendment of section 717 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in 1926 (Laws 1926, c. 720), any Court of Special Sessions having jurisdiction may impose the punishment provided by statute regardless of the former limitation. The sentence may be ‘imprisonment in a penitentiary, or county jail, for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than five, hundred dollars, or by both,’ unless otherwise provided. Penal Law, § 1937; People ex rel. Pierce v. Howe, 218 App. Div. 273, 218 N. Y. S. 361;People v. Kraft, 229 App. Div. 281, 242 N. Y. S. 348.

The district attorney on this appeal has argued that the Village Law should be interpreted to confine the jurisdiction of the police justice to those misdemeanors which can be removed into the higher courts under the provisions of sections 57 and 58 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Title 6 of Part 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure relates to Courts of Special Sessions and police. Section 56 reads: ‘Subject to the power of removal provided for in this chapter, courts of special sessions, except in the city and county of New York and the city of Albany, have in the first instance exclusive jurisdiction to hear and determine charges of misdemeanors committed within their respective counties, as follows. * * *’ Then follows the enumeration of thirty-nine specified offenses, of which the maintaining of a nuisance (Penal Law, § 1530) is not one....