People v. Nochera
People v. Nochera
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
A complaint was filed against Pedro Nochera in the Justice of the Peace Court of Mayagiiez charging that while driving an automobile through the streets of that city he turned the corner of McKinley Street at a speed greater than the ordinary pace of a pedestrian, thereby violating section 1 of the ordinance of March 11, 1911. The complaint was sworn to and signed by Enrique Rodríguez, a member of the Insular police force.
The ease coming before the District Court of Mayagiiez on appeal, it rendered a judgment of conviction from which ■the defendant took the present appeal.
The accused moved the lower court to quash the complaint
Said section 22, as amended, reads as follows:
“All cases within the jurisdiction of the justices of the peace must begin by sworn complaint of the complaining witness, or of the authority or officer having knowledge of the deed, or by whom the arrest of the offending party was made.”
This section does not sustain the contention of the appellant because it does not require that the person who makes a complaint shall state therein how he came by his knowledge of the facts, nor does the statute contain any provision that such allegation is required of .the complaining witness, or authority, or officer who makes the complaint. Before the said section was amended a complaint could be made only by the injured.person and the amendment had no other purpose than to permit a complaint to he made by other persons such as the authority or officer having knowledge of the act or who had arrested the accused.
The appellant also contends that the evidence is insufficient to support a conviction, because it cannot be gathered therefrom at what speed the automobile he was driving turned the corner of McKinley Street and because the prosecution failed to offer in evidence the ordinance said to have beén violated.
We have reviewed the evidence and inasmuch as one of the witnesses testified that the automobile was traveling much faster than a man .or a galloping horse and that the accused did not reduce speed when he turned the corner, and another witness testified that the automobile turned the corner at
As regards the failure to produce in evidence the ordinance claimed to have been violated, we held in the case of The People v. Suárez, ante page 226, that in proceedings to enforce compliance with a municipal ordinance in a municipal court (and we now add a justice of the peace court), the court will take judicial notice of the ordinance because it is the law of that forum. Therefore, when these cases come before the district courts on appeal it has been generally held that as the latter courts substitute the former courts they are subject to the same rule and take judicial notice of municipal ordinances. Jones on Evidence, (2d ed.), p. 127; 16 Cyc. 899, notes 44 and 45.
The last error assigned by the appellant is that the ordinance of whose violation he has been convicted is void because it does not establish an exact rate of speed at which an automobile may turn a corner and because it is in conflict with an act of the Legislature.
"We are of the opinion that the rule prescribed by the ordinance that no automobile shall in any case turn the corners of streets at a higher speed than the ordinary pace of a pedestrian, is reasonable, for the normal gait of pedestrians is very much the saíne and is an easy means of comparison with other rates of speed.
Finally, we do not find that the section of the ordinance under consideration is in contradiction with section 36 of
The judgment appealed from should be
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.