People v. Díaz Torres

89 P.R. 704
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedDecember 30, 1963
DocketNo. CR-62-405
StatusPublished

This text of 89 P.R. 704 (People v. Díaz Torres) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Díaz Torres, 89 P.R. 704 (prsupreme 1963).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Rigau

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Appellant was convicted of the offense of driving a motor vehicle under the influence of intoxicating liquor, § 5-801 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law, 9 L.P.R.A. § 1041. He was sentenced to serve 10 days in jail, and, as required by the law, his driver’s license was suspended for the period of one year counted as of March 15, 1961, when judgment was rendered.

He assigns the errors enumerated and discussed below:

1. That § 5-801 supra of the Act is unconstitutional because it violates the constitutional right of a person against “abusive attacks on his honor, reputation and private or family life.” The contention is frivolous. There is nothing in that section to constitute such abusive attack. Briefly, what that section merely provides is (a) that it shall be unlawful for any person who is under the influence of intoxicating liquor to drive or operate a motor vehicle, and (b) that in any criminal prosecution for a violation thereof, the amount of alcohol in defendant’s blood at the time of committing the violation, as shown by the chemical analysis of his blood, urine or breath, shall give rise to the presumptions set forth therein. Lastly, it provides that the same shall not be construed as limiting the introduction of any other competent evidence to prove the case.

[707]*707Going beyond § 5-801, it cannot be maintained either that the Vehicle and Traffic Law violates that constitutional right against attacks on the honor and reputation of persons. That Act regulates the traffic on our public highways — an indispensable function in any modern community — and prescribes penalties for violations thereof. Society has the right to demand that those who drive motor vehicles should not be intoxicated. As stated by the Supreme Court of the United States in Breithaupt v. Abram, 352 U.S. 432, 435 (1957), there is nothing “offensive” in the taking of a sample of blood of a person who is under the protective eye of a physician. The Court further said at p. 436 that blood tests have become routine in our everyday life; it is a ritual for those going into the military service, those applying for marriage licenses, and many colleges and universities require them before permitting entrance of students.

The Court added at p. 439 that, against the right of an individual that his person be held inviolable, must be set the interests of society in the scientific determination of intoxication of drivers, one of the great causes of the mortal hazards of the road. And the more so, said the Court, since the blood test likewise may establish defendant’s innocence, thus affording protection to persons innocent of the offense involved. The Court further said at p. 439 that since our criminal law is to no small extent justified by the assumption of deterrence, the individual’s right to immunity from such invasion of the body as is involved in a blood test is far outweighed by the value of its deterrent effect due to public realization that the issue of driving while under the influence of alcohol can often by this method be taken out of the confusion of conflicting contentions.

These statutory provisions relating to.blood, breath and urine tests for determining the degree of intoxication of drivers have become generalized in every place where automobiles and the use of liquor have created a- problem of [708]*708public safety. At least 26 states of the United States already have laws similar to ours on the matter. In 1957 the Conference Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and the American Bar Association imparted their approval to a Uniform Chemical Tests for Intoxication Act. For an interesting report on the matter, see the preface to that Uniform Act (Commissioner’s Prefatory Note) in 9 U.L.A., Supp. 1962, p. 48. The said Uniform Act appears in that supplement at p. 52 et seq. There is also a wealth of information and of citations of authorities in footnote 3, p. 436 of Breithaupt v. Abram, supra. The constitutionality of those legal provisions has been definitively upheld. See Breithaupt v. Abram, supra; Blackford v. United States, 247 F.2d 745 (1957); United States v. Nesmith, 121 F.Supp. 758 (1954); the Annotation in 25 A.L.R.2d 1407 (1952); the other cases and authorities cited in footnote 4 of People v. Superior Court, 84 P.R.R. 378 (1962); the sources cited hereinabove; and also Aim and Stefanson, “Chemical Tests for Intoxication: A Legal, Medical and Constitutional Survey,” 37 N.D.L. Rev. 212 (1961). In this elaborate article the constitutional problems are discussed at p. 232 et seq.

2. That § 5-801 supra is unconstitutional because it embraces a subject which is not clearly expressed in its title. This contention is also without merit. What the Constitution requires is that the subject, namely, the theme or matter treated in the law, be clearly expressed in its title.1 The Constitution does not require that the details or the procedures prescribed in the laws be expressed in their titles. Such a. claim would be absurd; the result of such a claim would be that the titles would be exceedingly long and complicated and would then be useless. We have already said that the title need not be a detailed index of the contents of the law, but [709]*709merely a signpost of the matter covered thereunder, People v. Pérez, 83 P.R.R. 221, 223 (1961); Sunland Biscuit Co. v. Minimum Wage Board, 68 P.R.R. 345, 353 (1948).

The title of the Vehicle and Traffic Law expresses clearly, among other things, that it is an Act “to regulate the traffic of vehicles and pedestrians,” and adds at the end the following: “. . . and to impose penalties for violations of the provisions of this act.” Sess. Laws 1960, p. 408. To provide for the case of intoxicated drivers comes clearly within the subject “to regulate the traffic of vehicles and pedestrians.” The error assigned was not committed.2

[710]*7103. That § 5-801 supra is unconstitutional because it deprives defendant of his right to a trial by jury. That section provides that any violation of its provisions shall be heard before the Superior Court by a court without a jury. Section 5-802 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law, 9 L.P.R.A. § 1042, prescribes the penalties for the violations of § 5-801. It provides that violations thereof shall constitute a misdemeanor and prescribes jail penalties, which vary according to the different alternatives which said § 5-802 contains. Appellant’s theory is that, notwithstanding the express terms of § 5-802 and of the provisions of § 14 of the Penal Code, 33 L.P.R.A. § 35,3 the offense in question, because of its “severe penalties,” should be considered as a felony rather than as a misdemeanor. The “severe penalties” to which appellant refers begin with a minimum of 10 days’ imprisonment in jail and a maximum of one year, and where as a result of driving in a state of intoxication corporal injury is caused to a person, the offense shall also be a misdemeanor and the penalty is imprisonment in jail for not less than two months nor more than two years.

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Related

Breithaupt v. Abram
352 U.S. 432 (Supreme Court, 1957)
Charles E. Blackford v. United States
247 F.2d 745 (Ninth Circuit, 1957)
United States v. Nesmith
121 F. Supp. 758 (District of Columbia, 1954)

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Bluebook (online)
89 P.R. 704, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-diaz-torres-prsupreme-1963.