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85 Ohio St. (N.S.) 430

State v. Born

Ohio Supreme Court

Decided February 6, 1912

Ohio Supreme Court · decided 1912-02-06

Exceptions to the Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga county. The defendant was indicted for manslaughter. He was charged with driving an automobile on a street in Cleveland, at a greater rate of speed than is allowed by law, within a district which was defined by ordinance as a business and closely built up portion of the city, and while so driving the automobile, ran down and killed one H. C. Cornelius.

Decided 1912-02-06

Davis, C. J.

¶1On the trial of this case the state offered to prove, by an ordinance of the city of Cleveland, which was enacted by virtue of Section *43112608, P. & A. Anno. G. C., and which declared that the locality where the automobile driven by defendant killed Cornelius, was a “business and closely built up portion” of the city, that the defendant was running his automobile at a greater rate of speed than was authorized by Section 12604, P. & A. Anno. G. C. The court ruled out the ordinance; and we think that the ruling was clearly correct. Whether the locality concerned was or was not a business and closely built up portion of the city, is a material fact to be determined upon the issue raised on the charge' in the indictment, that the defendant unlawfully killed the deceased. The defendant had the right to have that fact determined by the jury upon evidence, and not by the declaration by the city council, however lawfully enacted, nor however effective it might be for some purposes, that the place was within such a district as described in the statute.

¶2Exceptions overruled.

Si-iauck, Price and Johnson, JJ., concur.Spear and Donahue, JJ., dissent.
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