People v. Welch

26 N.Y.S. 694, 9 N.Y. Crim. 144, 57 St. Rep. 42, 81 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 474, 57 N.Y. St. Rep. 42, 74 Hun 474
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1893
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 26 N.Y.S. 694 (People v. Welch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Welch, 26 N.Y.S. 694, 9 N.Y. Crim. 144, 57 St. Rep. 42, 81 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 474, 57 N.Y. St. Rep. 42, 74 Hun 474 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1893).

Opinion

PARKER, J.

The defendant was convicted of manslaughter in in the second degree, under an indictment charging him with willfully and feloniously propelling and running a tugboat into a yacht, and “did thereby willfully and feloniously cast the said Jenkins from the said yacht into the river, * * * and by the means aforesaid willfully and feloniously did kill and slay the said Jenkins.” The form in which the offense was charged by the indictment would constitute manslaughter in' the second degree, under either the second or third subdivisions of section 193 of the Penal Code. The section reads as follows:

“Such homicide is manslaughter in the second degree when committed without a design to effect death. (1) By a person committing or attempting to commit a trespass or other invasion of a private right, either of the person killed or of another not amounting to a crime, or, (2) in the heat of passion, but not by a dangerous weapon or by the use of means, either cruel or unusual, or, (3) by an act, procurement or culpable negligence of any person, which, according to the provisions of this chapter, does not constitute the crime of murder in the first or second degree nor manslaughter in the first degree.”

The place where the crime was committed was within the territory described in section 1442 of the consolidation act, which provides that:

“The whole of the Hudson river southward of the northern boundary of the city of New York, and the whole of the bay between Staten island and Long island, shall so far be deemed within the jurisdiction of the city and the county of New York, that all offenses shall be cognizable in the courts of criminal jurisdiction held in and for the said city and county.”

Section 1 of the same act also provides that the boundaries of the said city and county include aU of the Hudson river within the boundaries of the state. By section 51 of the Criminal Code it is provided that “the court of general sessions of the city and county of New York, and the court of sessions of the county of Kings, have jurisdiction to try, determine, and punish, all crimes cognizable within their respective counties, including crimes punishable with death and imprisonment in the state prison for life.” And as the court named in the section last quoted was one in which the defendant was tried and convicted, it follows that the defendant was convicted by a court having jurisdiction of all crimes cognizable by the courts of this state, within the territory in which the offense charged was committed, which offense is declared by the statute of the state to be manslaughter in the second degree. But the appellant, not denying the general jurisdiction of the court to pun[696]*696ish offenders for crimes committed on the Hudson river within the boundaries of the city and county of New York, contends that defendant’s act furnishes an exception to the rule, because it constitutes an offense against the laws of the United States, and therefore jurisdiction to punish for it belongs exclusively to the courts of the United States. That while, prior to the recent revision of the statutes of the United States, the offense might have been punishable by the courts of the state, because congress had not at that time reserved to the United States courts exclusive jurisdiction of all offenses which could be tried and determined under the authority of the United States, such authority was taken away from the state courts by section 711, incorporated at the time of such revision, by which exclusive jurisdiction was vested in the courts of the United States of all crimes cognizable under the authority of the United States. The facts relied upon by the appellant to present this question, were established upon the trial, and appear in the record as follows:

“That the defendant, Thomas A. Welch, was duly licensed to act as a second-class pilot on steam vessels by the United States local board of inspectors of steam vessels for the district of New York. That while said license was in full force and effect, and while said defendant was engaged in the actual performance of his duties as a pilot under said license, a collision occurred, June 15, 1891, on the Hudson river, between the steam towboat F. W. DeVoe, upon which the defendant was employed, and which was at the time under the defendant’s control and management as pilot, and the sloop yacht Amelia, which collision was caused by the willful misconduct, negligence, and inattention to his duties on said F. W. DeVoe of the said defendant, Pilot Thomas A. Welch. The said collision, caused by the willful misconduct, negligence, and inattention of the said Thomas A. Welch, resulted in the sinking of the yacht Amelia, and in the destruction of the life of Francis Jenkins, who was at the time on board of the yacht Amelia, by drowning. Witnesses called on behalf of the people and of the defendant for other purposes were permitted to testify without objection or exception, as to the rules of navigation adopted by the United States local board of inspectors of steam vessels.”

These facts, it is readily apparent, constitute the crime of manslaughter, under section 5344 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which reads as follows:

“Every captain, engineer, pilot, or other person employed on any steamboat or vessel by whose misconduct, negligence or inattention to his duties on such vessel, the life of any person is destroyed * * * shall be deemed guilty of manslaughter, and upon conviction thereof before any circuit court of the United States shall be sentenced to confinement at hard labor for a period of "not more than ten years.”

And it is not questioned, but the facts proved establish the crime charged in the indictment. As the indictment charges an offense against the statutes of the state, it follows that the act of defendant violated both the laws of the United States and of the state of New York. But appellant insists that, as the act constituted a crime against the laws of the United States, the courts of the state of New York have been ousted of jurisdiction to try the offender, notwithstanding the same act constitutes, and for 46 years before the insertion of section 711 in the United States Revised Statutes constituted, an offense against the statutes of the state of New York, [697]*697and prior to that time was recognized as a criminal offense under the common law, constituting the crime of manslaughter. Section 5344, above quoted, is found in title 70 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, entitled, “Crimes,” and among the introductory and general provisions of that title may be found section 5328, which reads as follows: “Nothing in this title shall be held to take away or impair the jurisdiction of the courts of the several states under the law thereof.” In the same title, then, in which the act of defendant is declared to be a crime against the laws of the United States, it is provided that nothing in the act shall have the effect to impair or take away the jurisdiction of state courts under the laws of the state.

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Bluebook (online)
26 N.Y.S. 694, 9 N.Y. Crim. 144, 57 St. Rep. 42, 81 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 474, 57 N.Y. St. Rep. 42, 74 Hun 474, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-welch-nysupct-1893.