Bollinger v. Lohman

936 S.W.2d 870, 1997 Mo. App. LEXIS 24, 1997 WL 10416
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 10, 1997
DocketNo. 21030
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 936 S.W.2d 870 (Bollinger v. Lohman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bollinger v. Lohman, 936 S.W.2d 870, 1997 Mo. App. LEXIS 24, 1997 WL 10416 (Mo. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

CROW, Presiding Judge.

The Director of Revenue (“Director”) suspended the driver’s license of Benny D. Bol-linger (“Bollinger”) per § 302.505.1.1 The suspension was sustained on administrative review under § 302.530.

Bollinger then filed a petition for trial de novo. § 302.535. All of the evidence at trial was presented by Director and consisted entirely of documents, received without objection by Bollinger.

The evidence established that a trooper of the Missouri State Highway Patrol arrested Bollinger on January 12, 1996, for driving while intoxicated. Using a “BAC DataMas-ter,” the trooper obtained a “breath analysis” revealing Bollinger had a “blood alcohol concentration by weight” of .15 percent.

The trial court’s findings included these:

“3) That the documents offered by [Director] show a six (6) digit number as the serial number for the subject breathalyzer but the exact numbers are not legible on the BAC DataMaster Evidence Ticket or on page 3 of the Alcohol Influence Report.
4) That the maintenance report submitted by [Director] refers to a machine with a five (5) digit serial number.
5) That [Director] has failed to prove that the machine used to test [Bollinger] is one and the same as the machine certified by the officer is [sic] the alcohol influence report.
6) That [Director] has not shown that the maintenance report which refers to an instrument with a five (5) digit serial number is the report related to the instrument on which [Bollinger] was tested and [Director] has failed to meet the requirements of 19 C.S.R. 20-30.031(3).”2

The trial court entered judgment ordering Director “to remove the suspension from [Bollinger’s] driving record.”

Director appeals. Her sole point relied on is:

“The court below erred in setting aside the suspension of [Bollinger’s] license on the grounds that [Director] did not prove up maintenance because [Director] was not required to prove up said foundational issue, in that [Bollinger] failed to object to the introduction of the test result.”

The scope of appellate review set forth in Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30, 32[1] (Mo. banc 1976), applies in this appeal. Von Filer v. Director of Revenue, 893 S.W.2d 850, 852[1] (Mo.App.S.D.1995). The judgment of the trial court will be sustained unless there [872]*872is no substantial evidence to support it, unless it is against the weight of the evidence, unless it erroneously declares the law, or unless it erroneously applies the law. Id.

Bollinger has filed no brief. While there is no penalty for that omission, we must adjudicate Director’s claim of error without the benefit of whatever argument, if any, Bollinger could have made in response to it. Fitzgerald v. Director of Revenue, 922 S.W.2d 478, 479 n. 3 (Mo.App.S.D.1996).

One of the cases cited by Director is Reinert v. Director of Revenue, 894 S.W.2d 162 (Mo. banc 1995). It, like the instant ease, was an appeal by Director from a judgment reinstating a driver’s license after trial de novo. Id. at 163-64. In Reinert, the arresting officer testified without objection that a “breath alcohol test” indicated the driver had a “blood alcohol level of .211 percent.” Id. at 163.

When Director in Reinert offered the maintenance report for the breath analysis device in evidence, the driver objected. Id. at 164. The trial court sustained the objection; that ruling was evidently the basis for the judgment reinstating the license.

The Supreme Court of Missouri held admission of the maintenance report was unnecessary. Id. The opinion explained that although one of the requirements for admission of the result of a breath alcohol test is proof that the device used in the test was properly maintained, such proof is unnecessary if the .test result is received in evidence without objection. Id. The Court pointed out: “When evidence of one of the issues in the case is admitted without objection, the party against whom it is offered waives any objection to the evidence, and it may be properly considered even if the evidence would have been excluded upon a proper objection.” Id. at [2]. Consequently, held Reinert, the trial court should have considered the evidence regarding the driver’s blood alcohol content. Id. The judgment was reversed and the case was remanded so the trial court could consider that evidence and rule anew.

In the instant case, the trial court’s findings, quoted supra, indicate the court believed Director was required to prove that the “BAC DataMaster” used by the trooper to measure the alcohol concentration in Bol-linger’s breath was maintained in compliance with 19 CSR 20-30.031(3),3 and that failure to do so was fatal to Director as a matter of law. That belief is erroneous.

While such proof is normally a prerequisite for admission of the result of the test, such proof was unnecessary in the instant case because the test result was received without objection by Bollinger. Reinert, 894 S.W.2d at 164. Therefore, the evidence that the test showed.Bollinger had a “blood alcohol concentration by weight” of .15 percent was properly before the trial court despite the flaw in Director’s proof of compliance with 19 CSR 20-30.031(3).

Furthermore, the trooper’s report (one of the documents received in evidence without objection) shows the “BAC DataMaster” was “set up properly” and the trooper complied with every step on the checklist for conducting the test.

In addition to that evidence, the trooper’s report shows (a) one of the reasons he stopped Bollinger’s vehicle was because Bol-linger “failed to drive on the right half of the roadway,” (b) the trooper smelled an odor of intoxicants emanating from Bollinger, (e) Bollinger admitted he had been drinking, and (d) Bollinger’s performance on a field sobriety test led the trooper to conclude Bollinger was intoxicated.

The evidence in the three preceding paragraphs, although entirely documentary, was uncontradieted. Nothing in the trial court’s findings indicates the court found any of the evidence unworthy of belief.4 As we have seen, the judgment was evidently based on a [873]*873mistake of law, i.e., the trial court apparently believed the flaw in Director’s proof that the “BAC DataMaster” was maintained in compliance with 19 CSR 20-30.031(3) mandated reversal of the suspension of Bollinger’s license.

In Berry v. Director of Revenue, 885 S.W.2d 326 (Mo. banc 1994), Director revoked a driver’s license because the driver refused to submit to a chemical test pursuant to § 577.041, RSMo Supp.1992, to determine his “blood alcohol content.” The trial court reversed Director’s decision and ordered reinstatement of the license.

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Related

Farmer v. Director of Revenue
11 S.W.3d 113 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2000)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
936 S.W.2d 870, 1997 Mo. App. LEXIS 24, 1997 WL 10416, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bollinger-v-lohman-moctapp-1997.