People v. Pérez Díaz

58 P.R. 542
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedApril 23, 1941
DocketNo. 8562
StatusPublished

This text of 58 P.R. 542 (People v. Pérez Díaz) 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. Pérez Díaz, 58 P.R. 542 (prsupreme 1941).

Opinion

Me. Chief Justice Del Tobo

delivered the opinion' of the Court.

On February 16, 1938, the District Attorney of Arecibo filed an information against Vicente Pérez Díaz charging him with the crime of involuntary manslaughter.

The defendant pleaded not guilty and tried before a jury, he was found guilty. He moved for a new trial. The court denied his motion and rendered judgment on March 11, 1940, sentencing him to five months in jail.

Pérez Díaz appealed and in his brief he assigns five errors committed as follows: 1, The facts stated in the information do not constitute involuntary manslaughter; 2, under an information filed in accordance with Section 328 of the Penal Code, a verdict of involuntary manslaughter cannot he returned and judgment thereon cannot be rendered; 3, the court erred in denying the motion for a new trial and in [544]*544rendering judgment immediately; 4, the court also erred in giving instructions to the jury based on an involuntary manslaughter and in invading the province of the jury as to the appraisal of the evidence; and 5, the verdict is contrary to the evidence.

The appellant, arguing his first assigned error, maintains that the facts alleged in the information constitute the offense defined and punished in Section 328 of the Penal Code and not the one defined in Section 203 of the same Code, and that therefore said information is not sufficient basis for a prosecution for involuntary manslaughter.

Section 328, above cited, provides:

“Every conductor, engineer, brakeman, switchman, or other person having charge wholly or in part of any railroad car, locomotive, automobile, train or steamboat, and any train dispatcher, telegraph operator, station agent, or other person wholly or in part charged with the duty of dispatching or directing the movements of any such car, locomotive, automobile, train or steamboat, who, through gross negligence or carelessness, suffers or causes the same to collide with another car, locomotive, automobile, train or steamboat or with any other object or thing whereby the death of a human being is produced, is punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary for a maximum term of five years.
“If as a consequence of the collision, injury is suffered by any person, such conductor, engineer, brakeman, switchman or other person shall be punishable by imprisonment in jail for a maximum term of two years, or by maximum fine of one thousand dollars, or by both penalties in the discretion of the court.”

And Section 203, states:

“Manslaughter Defined. — Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being without malice. It is of two kinds:
“1. Voluntary. Voluntary — upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion.
“2. Involuntary. Involuntary — in the commission of an unlawful act, not amounting to felony; or in the commission of a lawful act which might produce death, in an unlawful manner, or without duo caution and circumspection.”

[545]*545The information filed reads as follows:

“The District Attorney files an information against Yicente Pérez Diaz, for the crime of an involuntary manslaughter (misdemeanor) committed as follows:
“The said defendant, Yicente Pérez Díaz, before the date of the presentment of this information, that is, on December 14, 1937, in Manatí, P. R, which is a part of the Judicial District of Areeibo> P. R., unlawful, wilfully, maliciously, and criminally, while driving; the Pontiac car No. 11,124, without observing due diligence, care- and circumspection, and while driving at an excessive speed through, a public road, without blowing his horn, claxon or other warning: device, while trying to overtake a horse mounted by Pascual Bruno» Meléndez, collided with the aforesaid horse causing Pascual Bruno Meléndez to fall off, the latter receiving bruises and wounds, among them an inter craneal hemorrhage, all this being the unlawful cause of the death of said Pascual Bruno Meléndez, which took place some hours later at the Municipal Hospital of Manatí.”

We have examined this information 'in the light of the last of the above-copied Sections, and in our opinion it contains all the allegations necessary to charge the defendant with the offense of involuntary manslaughter.

To drive an automobile in the manner expressed in the information is an illegal act which is not a felony but a misdemeanor, and as the death occurred when the act was committed, it is evident that we have to do with a case of involuntary manslaughter.

In the case of People v. Benjamín, 44 P.R.R. 431, Benjamin was charged with involuntary manslaughter. The case was tried before a jury, and the latter brought a verdict of guilt. The court rendered judgment of conviction. The case was appealed, defendant alleging that the evidence was insufficient and this Court decided:

“If from the evidence as a whole the conclusion can be reached that the chauffeur that caused with his automobile the death imputed to him was running at great speed, to the left, over a straight road, and that he could have perfectly seen the person struck by him, who was already in the center of the road, there is no basis for a reversal [546]*546of the judgment rendered in accordance with the verdict of the jury who convicted the chauffeur of involuntary manslaughter.”

And in People v. Menéndez, 43 P.R.R. 418, it was decided:

“In the instant case, a prosecution for involuntary manslaughter, the evidence tended to show that defendant was driving his car with dim lights, almost entirely out; that an automobile was coming up behind defendant’s car and another one in opposite direction; and that defendant turned his car to the right without giving notice or warning and caused the death of a human being. Held, that the evidence was sufficient to submit the case, with proper instructions, to the jury.”

In 5 Am. Jur. 925, in summing up the decisions on this matter, it is stated:

. . . Under statutes providing that the killing of another, in the doing of an unlawful act not amounting to a felony is manslaughter, a person who, while driving an automobile in violation of a statute or ordinance regulating speed or prescribing precautions to be observed by automobile drivers, and as a result of such violation kills another, is guilty of manslaughter.”

There is no doubt that if the information is examined in the light of the provisions of Section 328 of the Penal Code, it will be found that it alleges facts sufficient to charg’e the defendant with the offense to which said Section refers, but we do not agree with the appellant that, because of this, the district attorney cannot select the. proceeding which he is going to institute and that he is bound to prosecute the defendant only in accordance with the said Section.

In support of his viewpoint, the appellant cites some excerpts from the opinion rendered by this Court in People v. Padilla, 56 P.R.R. 138. These excerpts do not uphold his contention, since no definite conclusion is reached in them. The decision as a whole is adverse to the appellant. It is summarized as follows:

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58 P.R. 542, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-perez-diaz-prsupreme-1941.