State v. McMahon
| Decision Date | 03 November 1972 |
| Docket Number | No. 1347-E,1347-E |
| Citation | 110 R.I. 658,296 A.2d 28 |
| Parties | STATE v. Edward D. McMAHON, Sr. x. &c. |
| Court | Rhode Island Supreme Court |
Richard J. Israel, Atty. Gen., Donald P. Ryan, Asst. Atty. Gen., for plaintiff.
Aram K. Berberian, Cranston, for defendant.
A Superior Court jury found the defendant guilty of having committed an assault with a dangerous weapon. The sole issue being raised in this bill of exceptions is to the denial by the trial justice of the defendant's motion to transfer the case to the Family Court. The motion was founded on the undisputed fact that the victim of the assault was the defendant's emancipated 18-year-old son, Edward D. McMahon, Jr.
The defendant relies on our holding first announced in State v. Perry, 103 R.I. 6, 234 A.2d 115 (1967), and repeated in Dutton v. Langlois, 104 R.I. 528, 247 A.2d 86 (1968), where we ruled that jurisdiction to hear and dispose of certain criminal offenses enumerated in G.L.1956 (1969 Reenactment) § 8-10-4 is vested solely in the Family Court. In essence, the particular part of that statute which is relevant to this appeal provides that any case in which a defendant is accused of assaulting his 'wife' or 'children' shall be referred to the Family Court for 'hearing, adjustment, reconciliation, decision and sentence.'
The defendant takes a purely biological view of the statute when it speaks of children in that he contends it refers solely to the first generation of offspring no matter what their age or status. We disagree.
It should be pointed out that at no point did the General Assembly, when it enacted P.L.1961, ch. 73 and thereby established the Family Court, give an all-inclusive definition of the words 'child' or 'children' which would provide a ready-made answer to the pending issue. Chapter 1 of title 14 deals with the Family Court's jurisdiction of children who come before the court for a variety of purposes such as adoptions or those who are charged with such conduct as 'frequenting disreputable places,' or being 'delinquent,' 'wayward' or 'neglected.' 1 Section 14-1-3(c) defines a child as it is used in that chapter as meaning a person under 18 years of age. 2 The child whose status we seek to ascertain, however, is found in § 8-10-4.
Having found no definitive statutory assistance, we will first seek recourse to a well-known ready reference especially helpful in situations such as the one posed by defendant. Our research aid is Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1961). It lists more than one-half dozen definitions of the word 'child.' Accordingly, it should be clear that the word 'children' has a variety of meanings. It may be used to connote blood relationship, denote minority, describe one who has arrived at a point in life somewhere between infancy and youth or classify a new born human being.
Faced with a problem of statutory construction, we must then turn to P.L.1961, ch. 73, sec. 1, now § 8-10-2, which in part proclaims that, 'This chapter shall be liberally construed to the end that families whose unity or well-being is threatened shall be assisted and protected, and restored * * *.' It was this express legislative aim to preserve the family unit which prompted us in Perry to refer all intra-familial assaults listed in § 8-10-4 to the conciliatory services which the General Assembly envisioned would be found in the Family Court. The mandate for liberal construction, however, does not give us a license to construe § 8-10-4 in such a manner as to bring about a ludicrous result.
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- State v. DeMasi, s. 78-35-C
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State v. Kenney, 86-44-C
...and restored, if possible, as secure units of law-abiding members * * *." Section 8-10-2. Thus we reasoned in State v. McMahon, 110 R.I. 658, 296 A.2d 28 (1972), and more recently in State v. Donato, 516 A.2d 880 (R.I.1986), that where the family unit has already been dissolved by the emanc......
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State v. Donato, 85-388-C
...that Donato is correct in asserting that the Family Court does have jurisdiction to hear this case. To the contrary, in State v. McMahon, 110 R.I. 658, 296 A.2d 28 (1972), we held that "parental assaults on children should be transferred to the Family Court if the 'child' is subject to pare......