12 Ga. App. 86 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1912
An indictment was returned, charging the accused with a misdemeanor, in that he did, on a day named, unlawfully operate an automobile on a public highway “at a rate of speed greater than was reasonable and proper, having regard to the traffic and use of the said highway at the time, and did thereby endanger the life and limbs of the persons traveling said highway at the time, and . . did then and there approach a descent in said highway near Hill’s Creek Church at a greater speed than six miles per hour, contrary to the laws of said State, the good order, peace, and dignity thereof.” The accused demurred to the indictment, on the following grounds: Because no violation of any valid statute of force in this State was alleged; because the word “descent,” as used in the indictment, is too indefinite and uncertain; because the indictment is too vague and indefinite to set out any crime or the violation of any valid statute; because the rate of speed at which the car was being operated is not alleged; because it is not charged that the defendant did not have the car under control; because the word “descent,” in the act approved August 13, 1910 (Georgia Laws, 1910, p. 90), regulating the use of automobiles, is too vague and indefinite to be enforceable, and that to apply the act to every descent would be unreasonable and uncertain; and because the indictment fails to allege the descent or rate of speed, or how or in what way the car was not under control.
The court passed an order sustaining the demurrer in part, and striking from the' indictment so much of it as alleged that the machine was being 'operated at a rate of speed greater than was reasonable and proper, and overruled so much of the demurrer as objected to the averment that the accused approached a descent in the highway at a rate of speed greater than six miles per hour.
It is insisted, in behalf of the plaintiff in error, that the word “descent” is so general and indefinite that a person operating a machine along a highway can never know whether he is approaching a descent within the meaning of the act. Words used in a legislative enactment are to be given their ordinary signification, unless the context demands a different construction. The word “descent,” as used in section 5 of this act, must be construed in the light of the declared purpose of the act. It is true, as insisted by counsel for the accused, that the word “descent,” given its literal' interpretation, may include any declivity in the highway, of however small a degree, and upon this premise it is argued that it would be unreasonable to hold that the General Assembly intended to make penal the operation of an automobile at a greater rate of
The court did not err in overruling the demurrer, and the case should be submitted to a jury, in the light of the views herein expressed. ' Judgment affirmed.