State v. Delaire
| Decision Date | 08 April 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 1923,1923 |
| Citation | 127 Vt. 462,252 A.2d 531 |
| Parties | STATE of Vermont v. Peter DELAIRE. |
| Court | Vermont Supreme Court |
Joseph C. Palmisano, State's Atty., for the State.
Monte & Monte, Barre, for defendant.
Before HOLDEN, C. J., SHANGRAW, BARNEY and KEYSER, JJ., and LARROW, Superior Judge.
This is a speeding case. The offense was detected by radar, and the information charged the respondent with operating an automobile on Route 100, in Waterbury Center, 'at a rate of speed in excess of the legal rate, 40 miles per hour' contrary to statute, and against the peace and dignity of the State. The jury convicted, the court denied his motion in arrest of judgment, and he has appealed.
He first challenges the information bringing the charge as insufficient. The speed limit involved, 40 miles an hour, was a special one. Although it was not a local ordinance, but a state limit, it was one requiring establishment at less than 50 miles per hour under the authority of 23 V.S.A. sec. 1141, which reads:
Outside the limits of a city or incorporated village, the maximum rate of speed on all public streets and highways, except the national system of interstate and defense highways, for a motor vehicle shall be fifty miles per hour. However, when a traffic committee composed of the commissioner of highways and the commissioner of public safety and the commissioner of motor vehicles shall determine, upon the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation, that the maximum speed limit of fifty miles per hour outside the limits of a city or incorporated village, is greater or less than is reasonable or safe under the conditions found to exist at any intersection or other place or upon any part of a highway, except the national system of interstate and defense highways, the committee may determine and declare a reasonable and safe speed limit thereat and may alter or change existing speed limits and which shall, thereafter, be effective at all times when signs in such form as the traffic committee shall designate giving notice thereof are erected by the department of highways at such intersection, or other place or part of the highways. Outside the limits of a city or incorporated village, no signs changing a speed limit shall be effective on the state highways, except the national system of interstate and defense highways, unless approved by the traffic committee.
As can be seen from the statutory language, the speed limit charged to have been violated here must derive from action by the traffic committee and, to be effective, requires the appropriate posting of signs. These are the kinds of circumstances which call for the special pleading referred to in State v. Snyder, 123 Vt. 367, 368, 189 A.2d 535. The matter is definitively restated in State v. Baril, 127 Vt. --, 250 A.2d 732 (filed February 4, 1969):
A criminal complaint based on section 1141, which alleges a rate of speed less than the maximum rate provided in that section, must specify the restricted area and the applicable speed limit as regulated by the traffic committee.
The respondent's motion in arrest of judgment raised the shortcoming. This was a proper procedural device and the motion should have been granted. Since the defect can be cured by appropriate amendment, we will remand to that end. State v. Gosselin, 110 Vt. 361, 366, 6 A.2d 14.
The respondent has raised other issues, some of which may recur in a new...
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People v. Carroll
...Illegal activity, in this context, means activity that violates some constitutional right personal to a defendant. (State v. Delaire (1969), 127 Vt. 462, 252 A.2d 531.) No constitutional right, personal to the defendant, was violated when Officer Tillrock merely inserted the key and learned......
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State v. Roman
...Illegal activity, in this context, means activity that violates some constitutional right personal to a defendant. (State v. Delaire (1969), 127 Vt. 462, 252 A.2d 531). No constitutional right, personal to the defendant, was violated when Officer Tillrock merely inserted the key and learned......
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State v. White, 33-70
...Illegally obtained evidence is evidence obtained in violation of some constitutional right personal to the respondent. State v. Delaire, 127 Vt. 462, 464, 252 A.2d 531. Here, an infringement of such rights of the respondent is not demonstrated by the The respondent contends his rights were ......