People v. Grimaldi

163 A.D. 901, 31 N.Y. Crim. 216, 148 N.Y.S. 247

This text of 163 A.D. 901 (People v. Grimaldi) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Grimaldi, 163 A.D. 901, 31 N.Y. Crim. 216, 148 N.Y.S. 247 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1914).

Opinion

Thomas, J. (dissenting):

The defendant was indicted for, and acquitted of, discharging a revolver at one Di Meo with intent to kill him. He has [902]*902been convicted in this action of unlawfully carrying the revolver on the same day. The indictment and plea on the first trial presented the issuable facts: (1) Whether the defendant assaulted with a revolver; (2) if so, whether with intent to harm Di Meo. A negative answer to either inquiry demanded an acquittal, and to the second may have involved a finding of self-defense. On this trial there was one essential inquiry, was the revolver in the possession of defendant or Di Meo? As the transaction is the same in both cases, I assume that the same fact was one of those involved in the first trial. If, "now, the revolver was in the hands of Di Meo, the defendant did not carry it concealed or otherwise. If the defendant had the weapon, he must have carried it. Hence the inference that it was produced from concealment. Assuming, then, that the jury found the fact in favor of the defendant, and between the same parties, it still exists. (Earle v. Earle, 173 N. Y. 480; Pray v. Hegeman, 98 id. 351, 358.) The fact became the primary inquiry on which the case turned in this action, and may be in the former action. (Bigelow Estop. [6th ed.] 179, note.) It is immaterial that the fact was found in a criminal action. (Commonwealth v. Feldman, 131 Mass. 588; Phillips v. Fadden, 125 id. 198; Commonwealth v. Ellis, 160 id. 165; Commonwealth v. Evans, 101 id. 25.) In Coffey v. United States (116 U. S. 436) the defendant was acquitted of a criminal charge of illicit distilling, and it was decided that the judgment was conclusive evidence of the act or fact upon which was based a proceeding in rem to forfeit the defendant’s property involved in the alleged offense. It was said: “The judgment of acquittal in the criminal proceeding ascertained that the facts which were the basis of that proceeding; and are the basis of this one, and which are made by the statute the foundation of any punishment, personal or pecuniary, did not exist. This was ascertained once for all between the United States and the claimant in the criminal proceeding, so that the facts cannot be again litigated between them, as the basis of any statutory punishment denounced as a consequence of the existence of the facts.” But it may be asked what is the proof that the jury on the first trial found the fact for the defendant ? The record of the former trial was not received, and what it contains is unknown, save as it is inferable that it contains evidence relative to the issues and a submission thereof to the jury. And for aught that appears, the charge may have been such as to make the finding as to the possession of the revolver the basic fact. The absence of the record precludes the defendant from a possible opportunity. The burden rests upon him to show that the fact was decided. (Bell v. Merrifield, 109 N. Y. 202, 211, where it is said: “If there be uncertainty as to whether or not the question was passed upon, the judgment is not-eonelusive as evidence.’’) In Blair v. Bartlett (75 N. Y. 150, 154) it was said: “ How it is a rule that after verdict it is to be assumed that every fact was proved upon the trial which was expressly stated in the declaration, or which was necessarily implied from what was so stated (Spiers v. Parker, 1 T. R. 137; Jackson v. Pesked, 1 M. & S. 234); or which the allegations of the declaration required to be proved. (Nerot v. Wallace, 3 T. R. 25.)" As it was necessary for the People to prove in the first action [903]*903that defendant had the revolver, the fact was directly involved. The verdict may negative that vital issue, and if the record shows that the precise question was submitted to the jury, it seems a fair inference that the jury passed upon it. But there is opportunity for conjecture. The jury as a whole could not have found that he did not use the revolver and also inconsistently that he used it in self-defense. Indeed, some jurors may have acquitted on the question of possession of the revolver, some on the ground of self-defense. The question of inconsistent issues was involved in Littlefield v. Huntress (106 Mass. 121). The maker of a note had in an earlier action plead successfully (1) that the note was initially void; (2) that if originally valid, it had been satisfied. It was decided, however, that the judgment was not conclusive that the note was invalid, as it did not •show upon which of the two issues the defendant prevailed. The present case is somewhat different. The defendant did not interpose in the first action an affirmative defense. There was an indictment requiring proof of at least two facts: (1) A revolver in the defendant’s hand discharged at Di Meo; (2) that it was done with felonious intent. The defendant merely denied. The plaintiff had both propositions presented to the jury and was defeated. Had there been a conviction, there would be a necessary inference that both questions were passed upon. The same inference is not necessary in case of acquittal, as the verdict could rest on either element, absence of assault with the weapon, or of felonious intent. Three of the cases cited may be noticed. In Littlefield v. Huntress (supra) several eases are cited. One of them is Sawyer v. Woodbury (7 Gray, 499) where it was decided that in an action for several breaches of covenant in a lease of land, all of which were denied by the answer, a general verdict and judgment for nominal damages were not of themselves conclusive evidence of the breaches in a subsequent action without additional proof that the issue claimed to have been adjudicated was submitted to the jury. In Burlen v. Shannon (99 Mass. 200, 203) it was said: “It is allowable to reason back from a judgment to the basis on which it stands, 1 upon the obvious principle that, where a conclusion is indisputable and could have been drawn only from certain premises, the premises are equally indisputable with the conclusion.’ But such an inference must be inevitable, or it cannot be drawn.” The rule there adopted was that where the former action was tried upon two issues, upon either of which the verdict could have been returned, a general verdict proved nothing more than that the jury found one of the propositions true, but without finding which. In McDowell v. Langdon (3 Gray, 513) it was said of a former action, whether the “ verdict was returned on the ground that the defendants had not done the acts complained of in the plaintiff’s declaration, or on the ground that those acts were rightfully done, we cannot ascertain from the record. Parol evidence was rightly admitted to show what was decided by the jury.” There is some helpful discussion in Bigelow on Estoppel (6th ed. p. 177, note). The burden seems to rest on the defendant to show that the jury in the former action decided that he did not have the revolver. Whether the record will tend to show that is not known. But he should have the [904]*904opportunity. But it may be suggested that the record of the former trial was not offered as evidence of a fact, but that the verdict and judgment was tendered as a bar; that is, on the plea of former jeopardy. That is true, but it so happens that if the jury based the acquittal on a finding that defendant did not have the revolver, the verdict and judgment are equivalent to a bar.

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Related

Earle v. . Earle
66 N.E. 398 (New York Court of Appeals, 1903)
Bell v. . Merrifield
16 N.E. 55 (New York Court of Appeals, 1888)
Blair v. . Bartlett
75 N.Y. 150 (New York Court of Appeals, 1878)
Dawley v. . Brown
79 N.Y. 390 (New York Court of Appeals, 1880)
Stowell v. . Chamberlain
60 N.Y. 272 (New York Court of Appeals, 1875)
Veasy v. State
62 S.E. 561 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1908)
Burlen v. Shannon
99 Mass. 200 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1868)
Littlefield v. Huntress
106 Mass. 121 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1870)
Commonwealth v. Feldman
131 Mass. 588 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1881)
Brown v. State
141 Ala. 80 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1904)
State v. Robinson
116 N.C. 1046 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1895)
State v. Elder
65 Ind. 282 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1879)
Davidson v. State
99 Ind. 366 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1885)
Coffey v. United States
116 U.S. 436 (Supreme Court, 1886)

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Bluebook (online)
163 A.D. 901, 31 N.Y. Crim. 216, 148 N.Y.S. 247, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-grimaldi-nyappdiv-1914.