Opinion
Argued November 28, 1966
Decided December 30, 1966
Appeal from the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the Second Judicial Department, GEORGE A. TIMONE, J.
Nanette Dembitz, Charles Schinitsky and Annette Pinsky for appellant.
J. Lee Rankin, Corporation Counsel ( Patricia Zeserson and Stanley Buchsbaum of counsel), for respondent.
Order of Appellate Division, treated as a resettled order of affirmance including a grant of leave to appeal, reversed and petition dismissed. Question certified answered in the negative. Section 1293-a of the Penal Law, which provides that a person "who, under circumstances not constituting larceny * * * shall, without the consent of the owner take, use or operate * * * an automobile", is to be strictly construed. The statute does not apply to one who accepts a ride in an automobile, even knowing it to have been taken without the owner's consent, unless he was implicated or involved in the actual taking of the vehicle.
Concur: Judges FULD, VAN VOORHIS, BERGAN and KEATING. Chief Judge DESMOND and Judges BURKE and SCILEPPI dissent and vote to affirm upon the memorandum at the Appellate Division.