Case Name: People ex rel. Balke v. French et al., Police Commissioners
Court: New York Supreme Court, General Term
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1890-06-06
Citations: 11 N.Y.S. 181
Docket Number: 
Parties: People ex rel. Balke v. French et al., Police Commissioners.
Judges: 
Reporter: West's New York Supplement
Volume: 11
Pages: 181–182

Head Matter:
People ex rel. Balke v. French et al., Police Commissioners.
(Supreme Court, General Term, First Department.
June 6, 1890.)
Municipal Corporations—Removal of Policeman.
Relator was dismissed from the police force upon a charge that he was so much under the influence of liquor as to he unfit for duty. His captain and a roundsman both testified that he was under the influence of liquor, hut admitted that he was not grossly intoxicated. Relator denied that he had heen drinking, and the police surgeon, who examined him about half an hour after he had been taken to the station, testified that he was perfectly sober, and fit for duty. Held, that the dismissal should be set aside. Van Brunt, P. J., dissenting.
Certiorari to review the action of the police commissioners of the city of New York in dismissing relator, Theodore Balke, from the police force of their city.
Argued before Van Brunt, P. J., and Bartlett and Barrett, JJ.
Louis J. Grant, for relator. E. H. Hawke, Jr., for respondents.

Opinion:
Bartlett, J.
It seems to me incredible that this officer could have been perfectly sober and fit to be sent out on post, as the police surgeon proved he was, if he had been so much intoxicated as to be unfit for duty only 35 or 40 minutes before. The police surgeon was apparently called to sustain the charge, and, on his testimony, I think the charge should have been dismissed. The authority of the general term to reverse the decision of the board of police, when it is against the preponderance of evidence, has recently been distinctly upheld by the court of appeals, and, in my opinion, it should be exercised in the present case. People v. French, 23 N. E. Rep. 1061.