Opinion
34989.
DECIDED JANUARY 20, 1954. REHEARING DENIED FEBRUARY 13, 1954.
Violating traffic regulations. Before Judge Baldwin. Macon City Court. October 30, 1953.
Virgil H. Shepard, for plaintiff in error.
O. L. Long, Solicitor, contra.
The evidence authorized the conviction of the defendant for violating Code §§ 68-303 (a, c) and 26-8116, upon which the accusation was based, and it was not error to deny the deny the defendant's motion for a new trial, based on the general grounds only.
DECIDED JANUARY 20, 1954 — REHEARING DENIED FEBRUARY 13, 1954.
Walter Booker was tried in the City Court of Macon upon an accusation charging that he, on July 1, 1953, committed within the court's jurisdiction a certain misdemeanor, growing out of his alleged unlawful operation of a motor vehicle in Bibb County, along Dempsey Avenue, a public street and highway in said county. This accusation was drawn in four distinct counts. The first charged that the accused on said date failed to place the right side of his automobile, while not in motion, as near to the right side of said highway as practicable. The second count charged that the accused in meeting another vehicle coming from the opposite direction on said highway, failed to turn his vehicle to the right of the center of the highway so that said cars could pass without interference. The third count charged that the accused did at that time unlawfully, intentionally, wantonly, and recklessly drive his automobile against Mrs. D. W. Sapp, striking and injuring her. The fourth count of the accusation charged that the accused did on said date unlawfully, wilfully, and maliciously injure and destroy the private property of Mrs. D. W. Sapp by wilfully and wantonly running his automobile into and damaging her automobile. To this accusation the accused entered a plea of not guilty. Said case on September 1, 1953, came on for trial before a judge and a jury, and after hearing the evidence and argument of counsel, the jury returned a verdict of guilty as charged in counts 1, 2, and 4 of the accusation. The court duly entered judgment and sentenced the defendant to be imprisoned in such place of detention as might be determined by the State Board of Corrections for a term of 18 months, to wit, to serve 90 days on count 1, 90 days on count 2, a total of 180 days, and on count 4 to serve 12 months on the State farm, same to be computed from the date of the final disposition of the motion for new trial, filed September 5, 1953. This judgment and sentence was dated September 5, 1953.
On September 5, 1953, the defendant filed a motion for new trial in the City Court of Macon, predicated solely on the usual general grounds. The trial judge denied this motion, and to this judgment the defendant excepted.
In count 1 of the accusation, the defendant is charged with having violated the provisions of Code § 68-303 (a), as follows: "Every person operating a vehicle upon the highways shall observe the following traffic rules and regulations: a. All vehicles not in motion shall be placed with their right sides as near the right side of the highway as practicable, except on city streets where traffic is obliged to move in one direction only." In count 2 the defendant was charged with having unlawfully operated his motor vehicle along the named public street and highway, in that, meeting another vehicle approaching from the opposite direction, he failed to turn his car to the right of the center of such street or highway "so as to pass without interference." Code § 68-303 (c). As to the law covering the above-cited paragraphs of the Georgia motor vehicle traffic regulations and law, see Harwell v. Blue's Truck Line, 187 Ga. 78 (3) ( 199 S.E. 739). See also State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. v. Henderson, 81 Ga. App. 541 ( 59 S.E.2d 319). Count 4 of the accusation, upon which the defendant was found guilty, was to the effect that the defendant at said time and place unlawfully, wilfully, and maliciously injured and destroyed the private property of Mrs. D. W. Sapp by wilfully and maliciously running his automobile into and damaging her automobile. Code § 26-8116 provides: "All other acts of wilful and malicious mischief, in the injuring or destroying any other public or private property not herein [in Ch. 26-81] enumerated, shall be misdemeanors." Where the State shows that the property described in the accusation was the private property of the person named therein and that same was wilfully injured or destroyed by the defendant in the manner and form alleged, a prima facie case is made out. Woods v. State, 10 Ga. App. 476 (3) ( 73 S.E. 608).
The jury were authorized to find that the defendant acted deliberately, wantonly, and wilfully relative to the operation of his automobile at the time and place set forth in the accusation, and as to his not providing a clear passage to Mrs. D. W. Sapp, approaching along said public highway and street, namely Dempsey Avenue, from the opposite direction, as a result of which the defendant wilfully ran into and damaged Mrs. Sapp's automobile. The conviction of this defendant on counts 1, 2, and 4 of said accusation was amply justified and authorized under the evidence, and the trial judge did not err in denying the motion for a new trial, based solely upon the general grounds.
Judgment affirmed. Townsend and Carlisle, JJ., concur.