Chiodo v. Macduff

206 Misc. 357, 133 N.Y.S.2d 67, 1954 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2745
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 18, 1954
StatusPublished

This text of 206 Misc. 357 (Chiodo v. Macduff) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chiodo v. Macduff, 206 Misc. 357, 133 N.Y.S.2d 67, 1954 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2745 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1954).

Opinion

Sullivan, J.

The petitioner’s operator’s license and registration have been revoked by the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles for the reason that he had been convicted of speeding on three occasions within a period of eighteen months. (Vehicle and Traffic Law, § 71, snbd. 2, par. [c].) It appears that he was arrested for speeding in the village of North Syracuse on August 1, 1953, for which he was issued a summons to appear before the Police Justice of the village on August 15th. He pleaded guilty to this charge for which he was fined $15. The Police Justice marked the petitioner’s operator’s license which showed only one previous conviction and that was for speeding in the city of Oswego on July 26, 1952. On December 29, 1953, the commissioner ordered the revocation of the petitioner’s operator’s license.

It now develops that the petitioner had had another previous conviction for speeding in the Traffic Court of Syracuse on July 15, 1952, which did not appear on his operator’s license.

Subsequent to the order by the commissioner and sometime in March, 1954, petitioner submitted his affidavit to the commissioner. setting forth the facts that, at the time of his plea to his third charge of speeding on August 15th, the first' conviction upon a similar charge at Syracuse on July 15, 1952, had not been marked on his operator’s license, and also an affidavit of the Police'Justice, who stated that, at the time (of petitioner’s plea of guilty to the speeding charge before him on August 15th) there was only one conviction for speeding marked on the operator’s license of the petitioner, and that had there been two previous convictions marked on the license, he would have inflicted a more substantial fine upon the petitioner, and that he would have informed him that a third offense would necessarily have resulted in revocation of his operator’s license and license plates.

It is the contention of the petitioner that his operator’s license should not have been revoked by the commissioner, even though he had had two previous convictions for speeding, since only one appeared on his operator’s license. He claims that, at the time of his plea of guilty to the third charge of speeding, he had forgotten the conviction which had not been marked on his operator’s license, and that, if it had been marked on the license, he would not have pleaded guilty.

[359]*359As a part of his answer, the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles submits an affidavit of the Police Justice, under date of June 14, 1954, in which the Police Justice states that, prior to the taking of the plea of the petitioner, he read the charge to the petitioner and he asked him whether or not he desired counsel, and if so, he was entitled to an adjournment for that purpose, and he was also entitled to a jury trial. The petitioner answered that he did not wish counsel and he did not wish a trial. The Police Justice, in his affidavit, also states that he read section 335-a of the Code of Criminal Procedure to the petitioner.

Under date of August 15, 1953, the Police Justice certified to the commissioner the conviction of the petitioner for the charge of speeding, and also that he had read the provisions of section 335-a of the Code of Criminal Procedure to him." The date stamped on this certificate would indicate that it was received by the commissioner on September 9, 1953.

The petitioner now asks this court to annul the order of the commissioner which revoked petitioner’s operator’s license because of the fact that there was only the one conviction marked on it, and that the petitioner should not be penalized for the failure of the clerk of the Traffic Court to have marked on his license the conviction of July 15, 1952, at Syracuse.

The Attorney-General, in addition to opposing the petitioner’s application on this ground, also contends that the application herein under article 78 of the Civil Practice Act was not made within four months after the determination of the commissioner became binding and final (Civ. Prae. Act, § 1286), which was December 29, 1953, or within three days thereafter.

The application herein was apparently made on or after May 27,1954, or some five months after the order of revocation by the commissioner.

The petitioner replies that he sought a reconsideration of the matter from the commissioner by submitting to him the affidavits of the Police Justice and petitioner, and that his present application under article 78 of the Civil Practice Act is timely in that it is within four months of the date when the commissioner refused to grant petitioner’s request for a reconsideration of the matter.

The application is apparently untimely, because section 1286 of the Civil Practice Act specifically states: a proceeding * * * to review a determination * * * must be instituted by service of the petition and accompanying papers * * * within four months after the determination to be reviewed becomes final and binding, upon the petitioner * * * [360]*360either in law or in fact ”. (Petrsala v. Fletcher, 102 N. Y. S. 2d 943.)

The fact that the petitioner had requested the commissioner to reconsider his decision in issuing the order of revocation does not extend the time nor fix a later date from which the time to proceed under article 78 of the Civil Practice Act is to' commence. (Keays v. Conway, 105 N. Y. S. 2d 944, 946, and the cases cited therein.)

In the instant case, the order of the commissioner was made on December 29, 1953. Petitioner’s order to show cause why the relief requested should not be granted was dated May 27, 1954. It does not appear in the moving papers of either party when the order of revocation by the commissioner was mailed to the petitioner, nor when he received it. Therefore, it is fair to assume that the order, which is dated December 29, 1953, was mailed on that date. It should have, in the regular course of mail delivery, been received by him, at the latest, early in January, 1954. Hence, the four months period in which the defendant could have made the application would have expired early in May, 1954, and most certainly not as late as May 27th.

Had the application been timely the court would be constrained to deny the relief because of the ruling in Matter of Eckerson v. Macduff (284 App. Div. 56). In the instant case, it is to be remembered that the Police Justice certified to the commissioner that he read the provisions of section 335-a of the Code of Criminal Procedure to the petitioner before a plea of guilty was entered. In Matter of Eckerson v. Macduff, Presiding Justice McCurn wrote (pp. 59-61) :

It is, of course, the design of both the former statute and the amended statute that the magistrate before accepting a plea should bring to the knowledge of the defendant the fact that a conviction following a plea of guilty is equivalent to a conviction after trial, and that such conviction may result in either mandatory or permissive revocation of his operator’s license or certificate of registration, or both, in accordance with the provisions of law applying to the circumstances of the case. Court decisions construing the former statute have, as above indicated, placed the burden upon the magistrate to determine from the facts and circumstances and to correctly inform the defendant whether such revocation or suspension in his case would be mandatory or merely permissive.

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Related

Eckerson v. Macduff
284 A.D. 56 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1954)

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Bluebook (online)
206 Misc. 357, 133 N.Y.S.2d 67, 1954 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2745, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chiodo-v-macduff-nysupct-1954.