State v. Dingle
State v. Dingle
Opinion of the Court
The information charged the defendant with operating a motor vehicle while his license was under suspension, in violation of § 14-215 of the General Statutes. From a judgment of guilty the defendant appeals, assigning as error the court’s failure to correct the finding and the court’s conclusion upon all the evidence that the defendant was guilty of the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt. Upon this last assignment we examine the entire evidence to determine, as a question of law and not as an issue of fact, whether there was evidence to support the ultimate conclusion of guilt. State v. Pundy, 147 Conn. 7, 8.
From the evidence, the court could reasonably have found the following facts: On April 29, 1966, the defendant was operating an automobile. His last known place of residence was at 33 Columbia Street, Meriden, Connecticut. The license to operate an automobile of Roosevelt Dingle, Jr., born December 16, 1939, of the above address, was suspended indefinitely on March 2, 1966, and notice of suspension was mailed to Roosevelt Dingle, Jr., at the above address on April 11, 1966, which notice was returned, unclaimed, to the department of motor vehicles. Both the suspension notice and the license of Roosevelt Dingle carried the same license number as well as the above date of birth. The defendant’s son, three years old, was known as Roosevelt Dingle, Jr. The defendant and Roosevelt Dingle, Jr., as appearing in the motor vehicle department records, are one and the same person.
The main contention of the defendant on this appeal is that the sending of the notice of suspen
Such a suffix as “Jr.” is no part of the name and is merely descriptive and may be regarded as surplusage. Coit v. Starkweather, 8 Conn. 289, 292; Hardin v. State, 88 Tex. Crim. 495, 497; 2 Wharton, Criminal Evidence (11th Ed.) § 1050; 65 C.J.S., Names, § 5(b). It is generally held that no material variance results where a name is averred in an indictment or information with such a suffix as “Jr.” and the name is given in the proof without it, or where the averment is without the addition and it appears in the proof that the person signs his name and is known with it. State v. Simpson, 166 Ind. 211, 216; Harris v. State, 23 Wyo. 487, 499. Where the only difference between two names is the addition of the suffix “Jr.” to one of them, they have been presumed to refer to the same person, until the contrary is alleged and proved. 65 C.J.S. 48, Names, § 15.
The state maintained throughout that the defendant and Roosevelt Dingle, Jr., were one and the
There is no error.
In this opinion Pruyn and Dearington, Js., concurred.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.