175 Misc. 367 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1940
The petitioner seeks a court order directing the respondent Commissioner of Motor Vehicles to annul an order revoking the petitioner’s chauffeur’s license. In this connection petitioner also asks that his chauffeur’s license so revoked be restored.
Some of the material facts are in serious dispute so that it is impossible on the papers before me to make definite findings on all the pertinent factual aspects of the proceeding. It is uncontroverted, however, that on December 9, 1939, in Wallkill, Orange county, N. Y., petitioner was charged with a violation of subdivision 5-a of section 70 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law for having left the scene of an accident without reporting the same to a police officer or the nearest police station; that on the following day, December tenth, he was arraigned there before a justice of the peace, when the charges were read to him; he was informed of his right to counsel and the case adjourned to December eleventh, when bail was fixed, and the case adjourned to January 3, 1940, and then to January tenth, when he appeared with counsel, pleaded guilty and paid a fine; that subsequently his chauffeur’s license, which he had surrendered, was suspended by the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles. Defendant’s counsel and the police judge differ in their versions of what transpired and was said on January 10, 1940, in the court room or chambers of the judge prior to the imposition of the fine and surrender of the license. Petitioner contends that the judge failed to comply with section 335-a of the Code of Criminal Procedure in not advising him that on conviction his license would be subject to revocation. The judge on the other hand avers that the petitioner was informed that if he pleaded guilty the license would be suspended for a mandatory period of six months. Unfortunately there is no notation in any certificate of conviction or return showing upon its face compliance with the requirements of section 335-a which provided substantially: “ The magistrate, after the arrest of