Case Name: PEOPLE v. CONNELL
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1912-06-27
Citations: 136 N.Y.S. 912
Docket Number: 
Parties: PEOPLE v. CONNELL.
Judges: 
Reporter: West's New York Supplement
Volume: 136
Pages: 912–914

Head Matter:
PEOPLE v. CONNELL.
(Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department.
June 27, 1912.)
Pabent and Child (§ 17*)—Offenses—Abandonment of Childben.
Penal Law (Consol. Laws 1909, c. 40) § 480, provides that a parent or other person charged with the care or custody, for nurture or education, of a child under 16, who abandons the child in destitute circumstances or willfully omits to furnish necessary and proper food, clothing, or shelter for the child, is guilty of a felony. Held, that where accused, after having married the mother of an illegimate child, promised to give her $3 a week for its support, such promise, in the absence of proof that he was the father pf the child, was insufficient to make him liable for its care or custody so as to charge him with abandonment.
[Ed. Note.—Por other cases, see Parent and Child, Cent. Dig. §§ 176-181; Dec. Dig. § 17.*]
Smith, P. J., and Kellogg, J., dissenting.
♦For other cases see same topic & § number in Dec. & Am. Digs. 1907 to date, & Rep’r Indexes -
Appeal from Albany County Court.
Charles Connell was convicted of abandoning his seven months old child, and he appeals.
Reversed.
Argued before SMITH, P. J., and KELLOGG, HOUGHTON, BETTS, and LYON, JJ.
Thomas E. Powers, of Troy, for appellant.
Rollin B. Sanford, Dist. Atty., of Albany, for the People.

Opinion:
LYON, J.
The defendant was indicted, charged with the crime of abandoning his seven months old child, and upon the trial was convicted, and from the judgment of conviction has appealed to this court. The indictment was found under section 480 of the Penal Law (Consol. Laws 1909, c. 40), which provided as follows:
"A parent or other person charged with the care or custody for nurture or education of a child under the age of sixteen years, who abandons the child in destitute circumstances, and willfully omits to furnish the necessary and proper food, clothing or shelter for such child, is guilty of felony."
Erom the testimony it appears that the child, which was illegitimate, was born in June, 1911, and that the child's mother and the defendant were married the following December, but have never lived together, and that on the day of the marriage the defendant promised to give the mother, with whom the child has always lived, $3 per week for its support, but that he has given the mother nothing whatever.
This promise to pay did not make the defendant liable for the care or custody of the child, and, as there was no proof that he was the father of the child, the judgment of conviction must be reversed, and a new trial had.
BETTS, j., concurs. HOUGHTON, J., concurs in memorandum. SMITH, P. J., and KELLOGG, J., vote for affirmance.