Territory Hawai`i v. Aldridge, 2423.
Decision Date | 06 August 1940 |
Docket Number | No. 2423.,2423. |
Citation | 35 Haw. 565 |
Parties | TERRITORY OF HAWAII v. RANDOLPH ALDRIDGE. |
Court | Hawaii Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
RESERVED QUESTIONS FROM CIRCUIT COURT FIRST CIRCUIT. HON. A. M. CRISTY, JUDGE.
Syllabus by the Court
Courts will not consume time deciding abstract propositions of law or moot cases and have no jurisdiction to do so.
Act 234, Haw. Laws 1937, mandates the revocation by the court of the license of an operator who has been finally convicted of manslaughter resulting from the operation of a motor vehicle. This statute does not limit the power of revocation to any specific type of motor vehicle license.
A person who takes the life of another by criminal and wanton recklessness in the operation of a motor vehicle becomes, in the eyes of the law, a public menace and may not in any event be privileged to operate any type of motor vehicle on the public highway within the period of probation fixed by section 24, Act 234, Haw. Laws 1937.
It is not material whether the killing takes place on a public highway, in a private compound, or elsewhere within the jurisdiction of the trial court.
K. E. Young, Assistant Public Prosecutor ( C. E. Cassidy, Public Prosecutor, with him on the briefs), for the Territory.
J. P. Russell ( Thompson & Russell on the brief) for defendant.
The above cause comes here on reserved questions of law from the circuit court of the first judicial circuit. The defendant, Randolph Aldridge, entered a plea of guilty in the circuit court to an indictment found by the grand jury charging him with the crime of manslaughter resulting from the unlawful driving and operation of a motorcycle. The circuit judge suspended the imposition of sentence and placed the defendant on probation for a period of five years.
At the time of the commission of the crime the defendant held, and continues to hold, a license to operate an automobile. He also at the time of the proceedings in the circuit court was a licensed chauffeur. After the defendant had been granted probation the prosecuting officer filed in the circuit court a motion to revoke the licenses of the defendant pursuant to the provisions of section 22, Act 234, Haw. Laws 1937, which reads:
The motion for revocation coming on for hearing and the circuit judge being confronted with questions of law upon which he was in doubt and acting under the provisions of section 3540, R. L. H. 1935, reserved for the consideration of this court the following questions:
We are now informed by counsel for both parties that after the cause reached this court the order of...
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