People v. Chatham

PULLEN, P. J.

Appellant was convicted of a violation of section 501 of the Vehicle Code (driving a vehicle while • under the influence of intoxicating liquor and causing bodily harm to another), and now prosecutes this appeal.

The facts are not in dispute. As appellant was driving his automobile around a curve in the highway he crossed the center of the highway, marked by a white line, over on to the left side thereof and struck a motorcycle rider coming

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in the opposite direction, inflicting severe injury. It is not disputed upon this appeal that appellant was intoxicated.

The principal point relied upon for reversal is that section 501 of the Vehicle Code is unconstitutional, being violative of article I, section 11 of the state Constitution, which requires all laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation, and also of section 21 of the same article, which prohibits any citizen or class of citizens being granted privileges or immunities not accorded all citizens, and of the provisions of the Constitution of the United States, granting to everyone the equal protection of, and due process of the law.

Section 501 of the Vehicle Code reads in part as follows:

“Any person who, while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, drives a vehicle and when so driving does any act forbidden by law or neglects any duty imposed by law in the driving of such vehicle, which act or neglect proximately causes bodily injury to any person, is guilty of a felony. ...”

It seems to be the contention of appellant that to punish, as a felon, an intoxicated driver of an automobile for doing an act forbidden by law, whereby bodily injury is caused to another, while for the same act by a sober operator the penalty would have been a misdemeanor only, is violative of the several constitutional inhibitions above referred to. As an illustration appellant compares two men, one intoxicated, one sober, committing exactly the same act, each causing identical injury to another. What reasonable ground is there, he asks, to find one guilty of a misdemeanor, and the other guilty of a felony? He also contends that the intoxication of the driver need not have anything to do with the injury in order to establish the offense, and therefore contends the distinction which the legislature has endeavored to make results from no natural or constitutional distinction, but is arbitrary and unreasonable.