State v. Brown

• Citation: 97 R.I. 115,196 A.2d 133
• Decision Date: 18 December 1963
• Docket Number: No. 10428,10428
• Parties: STATE v. Douglas G. BROWN. Ex.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Rhode Island

Page 133

196 A.2d 133

97 R.I. 115

STATE v. Douglas G. BROWN.

Ex. No. 10428.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Dec. 18, 1963.

J. Joseph Nugent, Atty. Gen., Corinne P. Grande, Sp. Counsel, for State.

Aram K. Berberian, Providence, for defendant.

ROBERTS, Justice.

This is a criminal complaint charging that the defendant operated a motor vehicle on Main avenue in the city of Warwick on January 18, 1959 'at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent and safe under the conditions and having regard to the actual and potential hazards then and there existing.' The defendant demurred to the complaint on the ground that the statute creating the offense violates art. I, sec. 10, of the constitution of Rhode Island in that it is so vague, indefinite, and uncertain as to fail to state the particular act or conduct condemned therein. The demurrer was overruled, and the defendant took an exception thereto. After a trial to a jury in the superior court the defendant was found guilty and is now prosecuting in this court exceptions to the overruling of the demurrer and other rulings made during the course of the trial.

General laws 1956, § 31-14-1, provides in part that 'No person shall drive a vehicle on a highway at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the conditions and having regard to the actual and potential hazards then existing.' While the complaint makes no specific reference to the statute upon which the charge therein is predicated, it is not disputed that the intendment of the complaint was to charge defendant with operation at an unreasonable speed in violation of § 31-14-1.

The defendant, in arguing that the statute violates the constitutional requirement for certainty, obviously assumes that the conduct intended therein to be made criminal must be ascertainable from the terms of said § 31-14-1 without reference to §§ 31-14-2 and 31-14-3. With this we cannot agree, being of the opinion that the legislative intendment with respect to making the operation of a motor vehicle in specific circumstances unreasonable and therefore criminal must be ascertained from an examination of the pertinent statutory enactment in its entirety. A defendant may not import uncertainty into such statutory enactments by way of a fragmentation thereof whether such is of his own devising or results from codification.

It is our opinion that the legislature intended that the provisions of its enactment which are now included within §§ 31-14-1, 31-14-2, and 31-14-3 were to constitute a single statutory enactment that in its entirety gave expression to a legislative purpose to make criminal the operation of a motor vehicle in the circumstances and conditions specified therein. See State v. Noble, R.I., 186 A.2d 336. We attach significance to the fact that the provisions now under consideration first were enacted in the motor vehicle code act, so called, approved on April 25, 1950. P.L.1950, chap. 2595, art. XXV, sec. 1. An examination thereof discloses that the statutory provisions now contained in §§ 31-14-1, 31-14-2, and 31-14-3 constituted sec. 1 of the code as then enacted, the present sectionalizing thereof reflecting the subparagraphing of the statute in its original form.

This being so, we find inescapable the conclusion that in enacting subpar. (a) of sec. 1 of art. XXV the legislature intended to proscribe the operation of motor vehicles at unreasonable or imprudent speeds and to state expressly therein the conditions and circumstances in which such operation would become unreasonable or imprudent. In subpar. (b) of said sec. 1 the legislature provided that where no special hazard exists the operation of a motor vehicle at a speed in excess of certain specific rates at the times and places therein designated would be prima facie evidence that such operation was unreasonable or imprudent. In subpar. (c) thereof the legislature provided specifically that the operation of a motor vehicle would be unreasonable when the speed thereof was not appropriately reduced in situations stated therein relating to hazards inherent in the physical condition of a highway or potential hazards arising thereon in designated circumstances. We cannot subscribe to the proposition that the subsequent division of sec. 1 of art. XXV into G.L.1956, §§ 31-14-1, 31-14-2, and 31-14-3, can be viewed as effecting an alteration in that legislative intent.

We turn then to the question whether §§ 31-14-1, 31-14-2, and 31-14-3, when examined in their entirety as constituting the legislative enactment designed to proscribe the operation of motor vehicles at unreasonable speeds, so define or describe the conduct intended therein to be made criminal as to meet the constitutional requirement for certainty in penal statutes. This court has given express recognition to the rule that penal statutes, to be valid, must contain a description or definition of the act or conduct which comprises the offense contemplated therein stated with legal certainty. State v. Scofield, 87 R.I. 78, 138 A.2d 415. In State v. Milne, R.I., 187 A.2d 136, this court considered the constitutional requirement for certainty in penal statutes and concluded that the requirement is for reasonable certainty and that when the statutory language used to particularize the conduct that it was intended to prohibit is as specific as the subject matter thereof reasonable permits, the constitutional requirement is satisfied.

The instant statute read in its entirety discloses clearly that it proscribes the operation of motor vehicles at imprudent or unreasonable rates. It establishes also appropriate evidentiary presumptions as to when speed becomes unreasonable or imprudent in the absence of special hazards and that failure to appropriately reduce speed of operation when designated situations of hazard exist constitutes improper operation. The statute in its entirety discloses the offense created therein with reasonable certainty and, in our opinion, does not violate sec. 10 of art. I of the constitution fo this state.

In this case defendant brought the constitutionality of the statute into issue by way of demurrer to the complaint. This being so and in the interests of the prompt administration of justice, we will view the demurrer as raising a question as to the consistency of the complaint with the requirement of sec. 10 of art. I that an accused has the right 'to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation * * *.' The instant complaint...