Gutterman v. State

141 So. 2d 21
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMay 3, 1962
DocketD-4
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 141 So. 2d 21 (Gutterman v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gutterman v. State, 141 So. 2d 21 (Fla. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

141 So.2d 21 (1962)

Harry GUTTERMAN, Relator,
v.
STATE of Florida, by Richard W. Ervin, as Attorney General of said State, Respondent.

No. D-4.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

May 3, 1962.
Rehearing Denied May 31, 1962.

Edward L. Bush, Patalka, for relator.

Richard W. Ervin, Atty. Gen., and Walter A. Shelley, Daytona Beach, for respondent.

CARROLL, DONALD K., Chief Judge.

The respondent in a quo warranto proceeding has appealed from a final judgment of ouster entered by the Circuit Court for St. Johns County, ousting him from the office of City Commissioner of the City of St. Augustine, Florida.

Stated briefly, the following facts appear from the record before us on this appeal:

In a municipal election held in St. Augustine on May 23, 1961, the respondent was elected to a two-year term as a member of the city commission.

The charter of the City of St. Augustine (Chapter 11148, Laws of Florida, Special Acts of 1925, as amended by Chapter 31217, Laws of Florida, Special Acts of 1955) provides that the city commission of the city shall be composed of five members "* * who shall be owners of real estate within the City of St. Augustine, and who shall be qualified electors of said City * * *."

Section 97.041, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., provides that the following persons, among others, are not entitled to vote:

"4. Persons convicted of any felony by any court of record and whose civil rights have not been restored.
*22 "5. Persons convicted of bribery, perjury, larceny or any infamous crime in this or other states, or interested in any wager depending on the result of any election."

In addition, Section 112.01, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., provides:

"112.01 Conviction of certain offenses to exclude from office. — All persons convicted of bribery, larceny, perjury, or any other infamous crime, or who shall make or become directly or indirectly interested in any bet or wager, the result of which shall depend upon any election, or who shall hereafter fight a duel, or send or accept a challenge to fight, or who shall be second to either party, or be the bearer of such challenge or acceptance, shall be excluded from every office of honor, power, trust or profit, civil or military, within this state, and from the right of suffrage; but the legal disability shall not accrue until after trial and conviction by due form of law; provided, however, that nothing in this section shall be so construed as to remove or affect any punishment or legal disability resulting from convictions heretofore."

Sections 97.041 and 112.01, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., were presumably enacted by the State Legislature pursuant to the authority granted it in Article VI, Section 5, of the Florida Constitution, F.S.A., reading as follows:

SECTION 5. "Power to exclude criminals from holding office and right to vote. — The Legislature shall have power to, and shall, enact the necessary laws to exclude from every office of honor, power, trust or profit, civil or military, within the State, and from the right of suffrage, all persons convicted of bribery, perjury, larceny or of infamous crime, or who shall make, or become directly or indirectly interested in, any bet or wager, the result of which shall depend upon any election; or that shall hereafter fight a duel or send or accept a challenge to fight, or that shall be second to either party, or that shall be the bearer of such challenge or acceptance; but the legal disability shall not accrue until after trial and conviction by due form of law."

On April 5, 1937, in accordance with a jury verdict, the respondent was convicted of the crime of "assault-second degree" by the County Court for the County of Kings, in the Borough of Brooklyn, City of New York, New York, and sentenced to imprisonment in the New York County Penitentiary for a term of six months.

Section 242 of the New York Penal Law, as last amended by Chapter 88 of the Laws of 1909, McKinney's Consol.Laws, c. 40, defines the crime of assault in second degree as follows:

"§ 242. Assault in second degree. A person who, under circumstances not amounting to the crime specified in section two hundred and forty,
"1. With intent to injure, unlawfully administers to, or causes to be administered to, or taken by another, poison, or any other destructive or noxious thing, or any drug or medicine the use of which is dangerous to life or health; or,
"2. With intent thereby to enable or assist himself or any other person to commit any crime, administers to or causes to be administered to, or taken by another, chloroform, ether, laudanum, or or any other intoxicating narcotic or anaesthetic agent; or,
"3. Wilfully and wrongfully wounds or inflicts grievous bodily harm upon another, either with or without a weapon; or,
"4. Wilfully and wrongfully assaults another by the use of a weapon, or other instrument or thing likely to produce grievous bodily harm; or,
*23 "5. Assaults another with intent to commit a felony, or to prevent or resist the execution of any lawful process or mandate of any court or officer, or the lawful apprehension or detention of himself, or of any other person,
"Is guilty of assault in the second degree."

No copy of the indictment or information on which the respondent was tried in the New York court is found in the record before us nor is there in this record a copy of any other official instrument setting forth the exact charge on which he was tried and convicted. The nearest thing we find in the record to such an instrument is a paper denominated as the police record of the respondent, containing these notations "Arrested for felonious assault on May 13th 1936 * * * Using object on face of another." The only other thing in the record which we have found throwing any light on the nature of the offense is the respondent's testimony in a deposition that, when he and a friend were in a garage in Brooklyn "somebody hit me, and I grabbed his iron, whatever he had, and I hit him back."

The reaching of a judicial determination as to whether the respondent's conviction by the New York court in 1937 of the crime of second degree assault, which exact offense is unknown to Florida statutes, disqualifies him from holding the office of city commissioner of St. Augustine, requires a consideration of several problems in conflicts of laws and in statutory construction and application. These questions make this a case of first impression in this state.

One proposition is clear, however: we are essentially concerned with the application of Florida laws, not the laws of New York. While both parties to this appeal cite and rely upon many laws of the latter state, we think those laws are pertinent chiefly in establishing the nature of the crime of which the respondent was convicted in 1937.

We first reduce the problem before us by eliminating from our consideration the Florida statutory provisions which do not expressly refer to a disqualification resulting from convictions by the courts of other states.

The United States Supreme Court in Logan v. United States, 144 U.S. 263, 12 S.Ct. 617, 630, 36 L.Ed. 429 (1892), laid down the following rule:

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141 So. 2d 21, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gutterman-v-state-fladistctapp-1962.