David Anthony Janssen v. Commissioner of Public Safety

884 N.W.2d 424, 2016 Minn. App. LEXIS 63
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedAugust 22, 2016
DocketA16-99
StatusPublished

This text of 884 N.W.2d 424 (David Anthony Janssen v. Commissioner of Public Safety) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
David Anthony Janssen v. Commissioner of Public Safety, 884 N.W.2d 424, 2016 Minn. App. LEXIS 63 (Mich. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

CONNOLLY, Judge. '

Appellant’s driver’s license was revoked for a year and his license plates were impounded because a breath test indicated that he had been driving with an alcohol concentration at least twice the legal limit of 0.08. He petitioned for judicial review of the revocation and the impoundment, waiving all issues except whether the alcohol concentration of. his breath test was sufficient to show an alcohol concentration of 0.16 or more. The district court sustained the revocation and the impoundment on the grounds that (1) Minn. Stat. § 169A.53, subd. 3(b)(8)®, restricts the scope of implied-consent hearings to whether testing revealed an alcohol concentration is 0.08 or more and (2) appellant had provided no evidence to rebut the prima facie case that his test result was accurate. Appellant challenges the revocation and the impoundment.

FACTS

Appellant David Janssen was arrested for driving while' intoxicated (DWI). A *426 preliminary breath test indicated an alcohol concentration of 0.196. After the implied-consent advisory was read to him, appellant agreed to take a breath test. The first sample resulted in an alcohol concentration of 0.174, the second in an alcohol concentration of 0.167. Appellant’s driver’s license was revoked for a year and his license plates were impounded because his alcohol concentration was “twice the legal limit [of 0.08] or more as measured at the time or within two hours of the time of the offense.” Minn.Stat. § 169A.54, subd. l(3)(iii) (2014); see also Minn.Stat. § 169A.60, subd. 1(d)(3) (2014) (providing that driving with an alcohol concentration twice the legal limit or more is a “plate impoundment violation”). 1

Appellant petitioned for judicial review. Because having a test result of over 0.16 was dispositive of both the length of his driver’s license revocation and the im-poundment of his license plates, he sought to challenge the test result at his implied-consent hearing. But the district court, relying on MinmStat. § 169A.53, subd. 3(b)(8)© (providing that the issue of whether an alcohol concentration is 0.08 or more is within the scope of an implied-consent hearing) concluded that “whether the result was over or under [0].16 is not an appropriate issue for judicial review” at an implied-consent hearing and did not address the issue. The district court then stated that (1) respondent the Commissioner of Public Safety had made a prima facie case that the testing method used on appellant was valid and reliable and his test results were accurately evaluated and (2) appellant had not presented any evidence to rebut this case. However, because the district court declined to consider appellant’s 0.167 test result, it is not clear whether the district court concluded that appellant was driving with an alcohol concentration of “twice the legal limit or more” and was therefore subject to revocation of his driver’s license for a year and impoundment of his license plates.

ISSUE

May the accuracy of test results indicating an alcohol concentration over 0.08 be challenged at an implied-consent hearing?

ANALYSIS

“Statutory interpretation presents a question of law, which we review de novo.” Johnson v. Comm’r of Pub. Safety, 756 N.W.2d 140, 143 (Minn.App.2008), review denied (Minn. Dec. 16, 2008).

The scope of the [implied consent] hearing is limited to the issues in clauses (1) to (11):
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(8) If a test was taken by a person driving, operating, or in physical control of a motor vehicle, did the test results indicate at the time of testing:
(i) an alcohol concentration of .08 or more ... ?
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(10) Was the testing method used valid and rehable and were the test results accurately evaluated?

Minn.Stat. § 169A.53, subd. 3(b) (Supp. 2015). The district court concluded that issue (8), whether test results indicated an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more, restricted part of issue (10), whether test *427 results were accurately evaluated, to test results of 0.08.

But a consideration of whether test results were accurately evaluated presupposes a consideration of what the test results were, and, by the district court’s interpretation, test results over 0.08 could not be considered. In effect, the district court read additional language into issue (10): “Was the testing method used valid and reliable and were the test results accurately evaluated?” became “Was the testing method used valid and reliable and, for test results of 0.08 or less, were the test results accurately evaluated?” But a court’s reading of a statute'may not “supply that which the legislature purposely omits or inadvertently overlooks.” State v. Wenthe, 865 N.W.2d 293, 304 (Minn.2015) (quotation omitted).

Moreover, in this, particular statute, Minn.Stat. § 169A.53, subd. 3(b),. “the use of the word ‘limited’ ... means that the issues ... at an implied consent hearing are restricted to those that fall within the topics in clauses (1) through ([11]).” Axelberg v. Comm’r of Pub. Safety, 848 N.W.2d 206, 208-09 (Minn.2014) (declining to add a necessity-defense issue to the issues for an implied-consent hearing and noting that revising the statute is a task for the legislature). We conclude that Ax-elberg also prohibits adding language to the issues provided by the legislature.

Respondent cites our supreme court’s decision in Axelberg and this court’s decision in Dornbusch v. Comm’r of Pub. Safety, 860 N.W.2d 381 (Minn.App.2015), review denied (Minn. May 27, 2015), to argue that the plain language of the implied-consent statute prohibits consideration of the issue. We disagree. In Axelberg and Dombusch, the appellants wanted to add a necessity defense and a prescription-drug defense to the list of enumerated defenses specified in the implied-consent statute. Axelberg, 848 N.W.2d at 207 (necessity defense); Dornbusch, 860 N.W.2d at 382 (prescription-drug defense). Here, we are not adding anything to the statute. The statute specifically provides two defenses: (1) whether there is an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more and (2) whether the testing- method used was valid and reliable and the test results were accurately evaluated. Minn.Stat. § 169A.53, subd. 3(b)(8)®,' (Í0). As previously stated, an alcohol concentration of 0.16 is 0.08 or more, and determining the reliability of such a result cannot be done without actually examining the result.

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Related

Johnson v. Commissioner of Public Safety
756 N.W.2d 140 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2008)
Fedziuk v. Commissioner of Public Safety
696 N.W.2d 340 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2005)
Doe v. Minnesota State Board of Medical Examiners
435 N.W.2d 45 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1989)
Robert Edward Dornbusch v. Commissioner of Public Safety
860 N.W.2d 381 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2015)
State of Minnesota v. Christopher Thomas Wenthe
865 N.W.2d 293 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2015)
Axelberg v. Commissioner of Public Safety
848 N.W.2d 206 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
884 N.W.2d 424, 2016 Minn. App. LEXIS 63, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/david-anthony-janssen-v-commissioner-of-public-safety-minnctapp-2016.