People v. Rauch

252 A.D. 795, 299 N.Y.S. 155, 1937 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6321

Opinion

Judgment of the County Court of Queens county convicting appellant of the crime of manslaughter in the second degree in that he knowingly permitted an automobile owned by him, which he then knew to be in a dangerous and defective condition, to be driven by another on the public highway, with the result that it struck and killed a pedestrian, reversed on the law, indictment dismissed and bail exonerated. The record is barren of proof that there was a causal connection between the defective brakes or the defective steering wheel and the happening of the casualty. Therefore,- the defective condition was not shown to be the direct or the proximate cause, of that casualty. Hagarty, Davis, Johnston and Taylor, JJ:, concur; Close, J., concurs for reversal but dissents as to the dismissal of the indictment.