Herbst v. Voinovich

9 F. Supp. 2d 828, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9430, 1998 WL 345056
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedJune 22, 1998
Docket1:96-cv-01002
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 9 F. Supp. 2d 828 (Herbst v. Voinovich) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Herbst v. Voinovich, 9 F. Supp. 2d 828, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9430, 1998 WL 345056 (N.D. Ohio 1998).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

GWIN, District Judge.

On March 16, 1998, the parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment in this constitutional challenge to Ohio’s system of monetary charges for reinstating the driver’s licenses of those convicted of drunk driving [Docs. 27, 28]. In ruling on these cross-motions for summary judgment, the Court examines whether the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution stops Plaintiff Paul G. Herbst’s claims for damages or for injunctive relief. Then the Court decides whether it should abstain on prudential grounds from deciding Plaintiff Herbst’s claims. Then the Court decides if the Dou *830 ble Jeopardy Clause prevents Ohio’s driver’s license reinstatement fee after conviction for drunk driving. In deciding whether the Double Jeopardy Clause stops the reinstatement fee, the Court considers whether the fee is a civil remedy or criminal punishment. Finally, the Court looks to whether plaintiff should receive injunctive relief.

I

The State of Ohio convicted Plaintiff Paul G. Herbst of drunk driving in Ohio. After convicting Herbst of drunk driving, Ohio required Herbst to pay $500 to reinstate his driving license privileges. After paying these fees, Herbst now says Ohio violates the Double Jeopardy Clause of the United States Constitution. 1

Defendant, Franklin R. Caltrider, the current registrar of the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, requests dismissal based on the Eleventh Amendment. In the alternative, Defendant Caltrider asks this Court to abstain from deciding Plaintiff Herbst’s claims in favor of a pending state court proceeding. To effectuate this abstention, Defendant Cal-trider asks this Court to reimpose a stay the Court earlier imposed.

For the reasons that follow, the Court dismisses Plaintiff Herbst’s claims for damages. While dismissing Herbst’s claims for damages, the Court finds jurisdiction to review Herbst’s claim for injunctive relief. After finding that the Court has jurisdiction over Plaintiff Herbst’s claims for injunctive relief, the Court finds that Defendant is entitled to judgment on plaintiffs claim for in-junctive relief on double jeopardy claims as a matter of law. In deciding against plaintiff on these double jeopardy claims, the Court finds Ohio’s statutes to be civil remedies, not criminal penalties. Having found that defendant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, the Court denies Plaintiff Herbst’s request for injunctive relief.

II

On December 15, 1995, a deputy of the Lake County Sheriffs department arrested the plaintiff for drunken driving in violation of Ohio Revised Code § 4511.19(A)(1), (3). 2 After arresting Herbst, the deputy requested Herbst submit to an alcohol breath test. In response to the request, plaintiff complied and tested at 0.191 body alcohol content (“BAC”), which is over the legal limit of 0.100 BAC.

After finding that Herbst had a blood alcohol content over the legal limit, the deputy placed Herbst’s driver’s license under an administrative license suspension pursuant to Ohio Rev.Code § 4511.191.

Later that day, Herbst appeared, without counsel, before a judge of the Painesville Municipal Court and entered a plea of no contest to having violated § 4511.191(A)(3). After receiving the plea of no contest and finding Herbst guilty, that court sentenced Herbst under Ohio Rev.Code §§ 4511.99 and 4507.16. 3

After being sentenced, Plaintiff Herbst served three days in a state-sanctioned driver intervention program, paid the $300 fine plus costs, and completed six months of probationary supervision.

As earlier indicated, Ohio administratively suspended Herbst’s driving privileges at the time of his arrest. After receiving his criminal sentence, Herbst was under two separate driver’s license suspensions: (1) the administrative license suspension and (2) the trial *831 court’s judicially-imposed suspension for the drunken driving conviction. 4

Herbst satisfied the judicial sentence. Then, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles required Herbst to pay two driver’s license reinstatement fees, each in the amount of $250 as a consequence of his drunk driving arrest and conviction. 5 Unless Herbst paid this $500 fee, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles would not reinstate' his license at the end of the six-month court suspension. Unless Herbst paid this $500 fee, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles would continue his license suspension indefinitely.

In imposing these “reinstatement fees,” the Bureau of Motor Vehicles acted pursuant to Ohio Rev.Code § 4511.191(L). That law aims exclusively against those individuals who are arrested and/or convicted of drunken driving.

III

Herbst filed this suit 6 seeking declaratory, injunctive and monetary relief. In his suit, Herbst claims the driver’s license reinstatement fees the Bureau of Motor Vehicles demanded is a second form of punishment imposed for the identical conduct underlying his drunk driving arrest and conviction. He argues that imposition of the driver’s license reinstatement fee violates his rights under the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

After filing the complaint, this Court dismissed certain defendants. The Court dismissed the state of Ohio, Governor George Voinovich, and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles’s legal department. After these dismissals, the ease proceeds against Defendant Registrar Caltrider.

IV

Defendant suggests that this court should abstain from the exercise of jurisdiction over this case. The abstention doctrine was described in Railroad Comm’n of Texas v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496, 61 S.Ct. 643, 85 L.Ed. 971 (1941). Abstention from the exercise of federal jurisdiction is the exception not the rule. Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United States, 424 U.S. 800, 813, 96 S.Ct. 1236, 1244, 47 L.Ed.2d 483 (1976). Under the abstention doctrine, where a state law is being challenged in federal court as contrary to the federal Constitution and there are questions of state law which may be dispositive of the case, a federal court should abstain from deciding the case and allow the state courts to decide the state issues. Such abstention is appropriate in a case where the challenged state statute is susceptible of a construction by the state judiciary that would avoid or modify the necessity of reaching the federal constitutional question. Martin-Marietta Corp. v. Bendix Corp.,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
9 F. Supp. 2d 828, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9430, 1998 WL 345056, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/herbst-v-voinovich-ohnd-1998.