In re White

70 Misc. 2d 541, 334 N.Y.S.2d 476, 1972 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1763
CourtNew York Family Court
DecidedJune 28, 1972
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 70 Misc. 2d 541 (In re White) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Family Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re White, 70 Misc. 2d 541, 334 N.Y.S.2d 476, 1972 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1763 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1972).

Opinion

Edward J. Poulos, J.

The matter before the court is a motion filed by counsel for the respondent for an order pursuant to the provisions of CPL 100.15, 100.20, 100.30 and 100.40, dismissing the petition for failure to state a cause of action. The original petition herein was filed by a Nassau County detective assigned to the Juvenile Aid Bureau of the Nassau County Police Department. It was filed on information and belief, and alleged that the respondent committed an act which, if committed by an adult, would constitute the crime of burglary in the third degree in violation of section 140.20 of the Penal Law of the State of New York. The petition further states in para[542]*542graph 9 “ 9. As to the allegations herein made upon information and belief the sources of Petitioner’s information and grounds of belief are the statements and admissions of Respondent, if any, made to your Petitioner, and the statements and depositions of witnesses, if any, made to your Petitioner now on file with this Court.”

The respondent contends that since the petition was not verified in the manner prescribed by CPL 100.30 and since the statement of the complainant which supports the petition was not verified as required by CPL 100.20, the petition must be dismissed.

The question presented to the court is: Do the said sections of the CPL of the State of New York apply to the procedures of the Family Court! This court is of the opinion that they do not.

The Family Court of the State of New York came into existence on September 1, 1962 (N. Y. Const., art. VI; L. 1962, ch. 686). It is a civil court with no criminal jurisdiction and was established “ to provide a due process of law ” (Governor’s Memoranda on Bills Approved, N. Y. Legis. Annual, 1962, pp. 365, 368), and to avoid and do away with the inequities and in some cases illegal procedures that were practiced in the predecessor Childrens and Domestic Relations Courts especially in those cases that involved juveniles.

The CPL was enacted by the 1970 Legislature and became effective on September 1,1971. CPL 1.10 provides: “ 1. The provisions of this chapter apply exclusively to: (a) All criminal action^ and proceedings commenced upon or after the effective date thereof and all appeals and other post-judgment proceedings relating or attaching thereto; and (b) All matters of criminal procedure prescribed in this chapter which do not constitute a part of any particular action or case, occurring upon or after such effective date.” (Emphasis supplied).

CPL 10.10 provides: “1. The criminal courts ’ of this state are comprised of the superior courts and the local criminal courts.

“ 2, Superior court ’ means: (a) The supreme court; or (b) A county court.

“3. ‘ Local criminal court’ means: (a) A district court; or (b) The New York City criminal court; or (c) A city court; or (d) A town court; or (e) A village court; or (f) A supreme court justice sitting as a local criminal court; or (g) A county judge sitting as a local criminal court.”

The Family Court is specially noticeable by its absence from the above list of criminal courts. It is well settled and a long[543]*543standing theory of the law that the Legislature was well aware of existing laws at the time it made the change from the Code of Criminal Procedure to the CPL (Matter of Erikson v. Helfand, 1 A D 2d 59, affd. 1 N Y 2d 775). The Family Court had been in existence for a period of 9 years before the CPL took effect and the Legislature saw fit to omit this ever growing Statewide court from the list of courts to which the CPL would apply.

It has been argued that since the Gault case (387 U. S. 1), with respect to juvenile delinquency proceedings, the Family Court is a criminal court and criminal rules and procedures apply. That was not the holding in the Gault case. Nowhere in that case is there any statement that a juvenile court is a criminal court. The ruling in Gault was based solely on the fact that the juvenile was denied due process of law as required by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution which were made obligatory on the States by the Fourteenth Amendment.

The court stated (pp. 13-14): “ that the Due Process clause has a role to play. The problem is to ascertain the precise impact of the due process requirement upon such proceedings. * * * From the inception of the juvenile court system, wide differences have been tolerated — indeed insisted upon — between the procedural rights accorded to adults and those of juveniles. In practically all jurisdictions, there are rights granted to adults which are withheld from juveniles ”.

In Gault, the court decided that due process and fair treatment require that the juveniles be granted certain rights that are available to all adults. Namely: 1. Timely notice of charges, 2. Bight to counsel, 3. Bight of confrontation and cross-examination, 4. Privilege against self incriminaiton.

In connection with this privilege against self incrimination, the court stated (p. 49): “juvenile proceedings to determine ‘ delinquency,’ which may lead to commitment to a state institution, must be regarded as ‘ criminal ’ for purposes of the privilege against self-incrimination”. (Emphasis supplied.) This is certainly a far cry from saying a juvenile court is a criminal court and all the rules of criminal procedure should apply to the juvenile proceedings.

In Mr. Justice Stewart’s dissenting opinion, he states (pp. 78-79), “ Whether treating with a delinquent child, a neglected child, a defective child, or a dependent child, a juvenile proceeding’s whole purpose and mission is the very opposite of * * * a prosecution in a criminal court. The object of the

[544]*544one is a correction of a condition. The object of the other is conviction and punishment for a criminal act * * * The inflexible restrictions that the Constitution so wisely made applicable to adversary criminal trials have no inevitable place in the proceedings of those public social agencies known as juvenile or family courts. And to impose the Court’s long catalogue of requirements upon juvenile proceedings in every area of the country is to invite a long step backwards into the nineteenth century ”. (Emphasis supplied.)

Matter of Winship (397 U. S. 358) added one more essential of due process and fair treatment to juvenile proceedings — proof beyond a reasonable doubt during the fact finding part of a juvenile delinquency hearing. While adding this additional safeguard, nowhere did the court state that juvenile proceedings were criminal and should be governed by criminal procedures. In fact, the court stated (p. 367), “ the observance of the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt will not compel the States to abandon or displace any of the substantive benefits of the juvenile process ”.

In Mr. Justice Harlan’s concurring opinion, he stated (pp. 374-375): “ I wish to emphasize, as I did in my separate opinion in Gault * * * that there is no automatic congruence between the procedural requirements imposed by due process in a criminal case, and those imposed by due process in juvenile cases.

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Related

In re Rudy S.
100 Misc. 2d 1112 (NYC Family Court, 1979)
In re Charles C.
83 Misc. 2d 388 (New York Family Court, 1975)
In re Parks
78 Misc. 2d 281 (NYC Family Court, 1974)

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Bluebook (online)
70 Misc. 2d 541, 334 N.Y.S.2d 476, 1972 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1763, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-white-nyfamct-1972.