Heldenbrand v. Lester

1970 OK 163, 475 P.2d 147
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 8, 1970
DocketNo. 43500
StatusPublished

This text of 1970 OK 163 (Heldenbrand v. Lester) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Heldenbrand v. Lester, 1970 OK 163, 475 P.2d 147 (Okla. 1970).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, Justice.

Plaintiff in error brings the present appeal from a judgment of the trial court affirming an order of the Commissioner of Public Safety, hereinafter called defendant or Commissioner, suspending for a period of sixty days a motor vehicle operator’s license theretofore issued to him. Reference to the plaintiff in error hereinafter will be as plaintiff, as in the trial court.

The basis of defendant’s order was a recent purported conviction of plaintiff on the charge of speeding in the justice of the peace court in McClain County and a file of abstracts of convictions in former cases and warnings previously given the plaintiff by officers of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

In a letter sent to plaintiff by the Commissioner dated February 20, 1969, and testified by plaintiff to have been received by him the following day, plaintiff was notified his described operator’s license had been suspended for 60 days pursuant to authority of Title 47 (O.S.1961) Section 6-206(b).

The receipt of that order precipitated the filing by plaintiff of his suit in the trial court. In that order it was stated: “You pled guilty to the offense of speeding on January 3, 1969 in the Justice of Peace Court, McClain County, Purcell, Oklahoma, and your previous traffic record.”

The question presented for our determination in this appeal is whether the Commissioner of Public Safety and on appeal, the courts, in determining the propriety of suspending a motor vehicle operator’s license, are lawfully authorized to take into consideration an abstract of judgment of a justice of the peace court purportedly convicting the operator allegedly on a plea of guilty to a minor criminal offense and adjudging that he pay a small fine and costs, where it is claimed that the defendant did not appear in person and so enter any plea. Our answer is that in this case he and they are so authorized.

A further question is as to whether the Commissioner abused his discretion in the action taken. We hold he did not.

There are certain statutes of our State with which we are particularly concerned in this appeal. One of these is 47 O.S. 1961, § ll-807(c). As applied to the facts of the instant case, it in effect provides that every person convicted of speeding (in the operation of a motor vehicle) “shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined in a sum of not less than Ten Dollars ($10.00) and not more than Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00), or shall be sentenced to serve a term of not less than five days nor more than thirty days in jail, or by both such fine and imprisonment.” (This provision is a part of Article VIII — Speed Restrictions of Chapter 11, Rules of the Road of the Uniform Vehicle Code, Chapter 10b of Title 47, see p. 386, S.L. of Oklahoma, 1961).

In brief the Attorney General cites another of our statutes, 47 O.S.1969 Supp. § 17-101 (b). In pertinent part it provides as follows:

“Any person violating the provisions of Chapters 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 16, where a jail sentence is not mandatory may, in the discretion of the County Attorney wherein the offense occurred, be permitted to enter a plea of guilty by written statement by the person charged to be presented to the court wherein the case is filed. A remittance covering the fine and costs may be considered and received with the same force and effect as a written plea of guilty.”

It is argued that the general rules cited by plaintiff “are subject to rules which more specifically govern this particular area” (Uniform Vehicle Code). We agree.

Still another of our statutes, 47 O.S. 1961, § 18-101, provides that all magistrates and judges shall keep or cause to be kept records of traffic offenses charged and send the Department of Public Safety an abstract containing specified information with reference thereto including plea, [150]*150judgment, forfeiture of bail, etc., certified as true and correct.

Still another applicable statute is 47 O. S.1961, § 6-206. It provides for the reporting by the courts of convictions of traffic offenders, the suspension by the Department of Public Safety of their operators’ licenses (for not exceeding twelve months) and for the right of appeal.

Plaintiff’s driving record was introduced in evidence in the trial from which the present appeal arises by the Commissioner. Exhibit 1 of defendant consists of a number of certified photo-copies of legal instruments. Most of these are described hereinafter, some categorically and some in greater detail. Such exhibit was received in evidence over the objection of plaintiff of effect that the instruments therein contained were “incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.” Admission was there made that “they have been properly identified.”

Defendant’s Exhibit 1 consisted in part, among other items, of certified photo copies of instruments on file with the Accident Records Division of the Department of Public Safety of the State of Oklahoma. Some of these were the original (or duplicate original) copies of respectively numbered “Oklahoma Uniform Violations Complaints” signed by the respective troopers and furnished the various courts in which plaintiff was charged, and containing written promises signed by plaintiff as authorized by statute that he would appear in the respectively named courts at designated addresses on dates and at times written therein. Some were abstracts of records signed by the judges or clerks of the respective courts showing date and disposition of the respective charges and reflecting 5 purported convictions of plaintiff of the offense of speeding in Oklahoma courts and 1 in a Texas court respectively stated to be on pleas of guilty entered by plaintiff, 2 others in Oklahoma courts where fines and costs purportedly were paid but no statement that plaintiff actually had entered pleas of guilty was made and still 2 other purported Oklahoma convictions, including one for speeding likewise, in which it was not stated that plaintiff had entered a plea of guilty.

As admitted in brief of plaintiff in error, “This record reflects information transmitted to the office of the Commissioner of Public Safety by the various courts throughout Oklahoma in which the plaintiff in error had been ‘convicted’ of different traffic violations including speeding, improper passing, improper left turn and following too close.”

The described exhibit further contained respective acknowledgments signed by plaintiff of receipt by him of each of 10 different “Department of Public Safety, Oklahoma Highway Patrol Warnings” for commission by him of alleged specific traffic offenses including 2 for speeding at night and 1 for travelling too fast on a wet road at night (80 m. p. h.).

Plaintiff had been warned in a personal interview that a further conviction could lead to a suspension of his operator’s license.

Within less than 5 months from the date of that interview plaintiff was stopped by a highway patrolman in McClain County and acknowledged in writing over his signature “without admitting guilt” that, following detection by radar, he had been charged with having committed, on the date and at the time stated the offense of speeding at the rate of 80 miles per hour in a 70 miles per hour zone on Interstate Highway 35 at a point 10 miles north of Purcell.

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Bluebook (online)
1970 OK 163, 475 P.2d 147, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heldenbrand-v-lester-okla-1970.