261 A.D. 915 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1941
-Judgments of the County Court, Queens County, convicting defendants of the crimes of arson in the second degree and arson in the third degree; order denying defendants’ motion to set aside the verdict; and order denying defendants’ motion for an inspection of certain minutes and for other relief, in so far as appealed from, affirmed. Carswell, Johnston and Adel, JJ., concur with the following memorandum: The statements made by the complainants to the fire, marshal should not have been excluded on the ground that they were barred by section 779, Greater New York Charter, because that section was not operative at the time of the fire. (See Laws of 1934, chap. 715.) There was, however, no harm in the rulings made with respect to the statements, which were not of a contradictory nature, because the witnesses had admitted at the trial that they had previously made such statements. Proof of damage to the realty was admissible, although the form of the evidence received was not the best. The rebuttal evidence that the witness Tuniek was not abused at the time he gave a