Johnson v. Commissioner of Public Safety

400 N.W.2d 195, 1987 Minn. App. LEXIS 4018
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedFebruary 3, 1987
DocketC9-86-1435
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 400 N.W.2d 195 (Johnson 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
Johnson v. Commissioner of Public Safety, 400 N.W.2d 195, 1987 Minn. App. LEXIS 4018 (Mich. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

OPINION

RANDALL, Judge.

Respondent was arrested for driving while under the influence. His driver’s license was revoked for refusing chemical testing under the implied consent law, and he petitioned for judicial review. The trial court rescinded the revocation. The Commissioner of Public Safety appeals. We affirm.

FACTS

On May 4, 1986, at approximately 1:00 a.m., Officer Rayette Manderfelt of the Corcoran Police Department placed respondent Kirk Paul Johnson under arrest for driving while under the influence. She read the implied consent advisory to respondent, who stated he understood it and agreed to take the breath test. Manderfelt transported respondent to the Medina Police Station, where the Intoxilyzer test was to be performed. Manderfelt initialed the Intoxilyzer test record form indicating she had observed respondent for fifteen to twenty minutes prior to administering the test.

At approximately 2:36 a.m., Officer Jill Hodapp of the Medina Police Department, a certified peace officer and Intoxilyzer operator, attempted to administer a breath test to respondent by pressing the start test button on the Intoxilyzer and inserting a test record. The Intoxilyzer first performed internal diagnostic checks. The temperature of the Intoxilyzer and the air blanks produced readings within established tolerances, indicating the machine was working properly. Respondent blew into the machine several times, but never blew long enough or hard enough to produce an adequate sample.

At some point during this period while Hodapp was attempting to get an adequate sample, she indicated to respondent that if he could not provide an adequate sample she would note it as a refusal and there could be driver’s license consequences. At this time, two and one-half minutes of the standard four minutes for providing a breath sample had elapsed. Respondent indicated that he was willing to continue trying to provide an adequate breath sample, but as he opened his mouth to again receive the tube, he stuck his tongue out at Officer Hodapp.

Respondent had been uncooperative and belligerent off and on since his initial arrest. When he stuck his tongue out at the testing officer, it was to her the last straw. She terminated the testing .process, and noted a refusal for respondent. He was not allowed to continue to breathe into the Intoxilyzer for another minute and one-half, but Hodapp did allow the machine to keep running for the four minute cycle. After the four minutes were up, the machine reported that the breath sample submitted by respondent was deficient. This test record was admitted into evidence.

At the implied consent hearing, respondent testified that he made only one attempt to provide a sample for just a few seconds, and that he felt the officer deliberately terminated his testing to cause him to lose his license for one year. Respondent agreed that he had been belligerent and uncooperative, but testified that it was due to his being handcuffed behind his back immediately upon his arrest, a position unnecessarily restrictive and painful.

Respondent also indicated that, although he smokes cigarettes and gets winded easily, he does physical labor and was not suffering from any illness or injury which would render him physically unable to blow into the Intoxilyzer.

The trial court found respondent had been read the implied consent advisory and had agreed to take the breath test. The *197 trial court found the Intoxilyzer machine worked properly, but that no adequate sample had been provided by petitioner during the two and one-half minutes he was allowed to blow into the machine.

The trial court concluded petitioner had not refused to give a test within the meaning of the law, and thus the revocation was improper and petitioner was entitled to an order rescinding the revocation of his driving privileges. Appellant Commissioner of Public Safety appeals. We affirm.

ISSUES

1. Was the issue of refusal properly before the trial court?

2. Did the trial court properly rescind the revocation of respondent’s driving privileges where the officer prevented respondent from completing the test because she determined respondent’s belligerence constituted a refusal?

ANALYSIS

I.

Scope of Review

The parties stipulated that respondent refused the test, and the only issue was whether the refusal was reasonable. The stipulation on the record was narrow, but it is clear that probable cause was not at issue. In response to the court’s question “The only issue is of a reasonable refusal?” respondent’s attorney answered “yes.”

At oral argument respondent’s attorney argued vigorously that he was misled by appellant’s attorney. When attempting to cooperate prior to the hearing to narrow the issues, respondent’s attorney did not mean to give up what he felt was his client’s basic right to argue that respondent had not refused the test, but rather he had not been allowed a full four minutes to blow into the Intoxilyzer machine.

Appellant, on the other hand, argues that the trial court erroneously considered whether respondent refused, and should only have considered whether his refusal was reasonable. We note that the two issues are close, and, in the way the case was presented and argued by both sides, the issues overlap. Thus we find that the issue of whether there was a refusal at all was properly before the trial court.

II.

Rescission

The critical issue for both sides, the trial court, and now this court on review, is whether the trial court properly rescinded respondent’s revocation. After making its findings of fact, the trial court rescinded respondent’s revocation, holding:

Once an Intoxilyzer Test has been commenced, the Operator may not terminate the testing and consider it a refusal prior to the expiration of the first four minute cycle and calibration standard analysis. Huber v. Commissioner of Public Safety, 382 N.W.2d 573 (Minn.Ct.App.1986); Genia v. Commissioner of Public Safety, 382 N.W.2d 284 (Minn.Ct.App.1986).

The Commissioner argues that the trial court’s factual finding # 10, indicating that the Intoxilyzer machine was terminated pri- or to the conclusion of the four minute test period, is unsupported by the record, and should be reversed. The Commissioner argues that when the police officer took the breath tube away from respondent, the In-toxilyzer was allowed to continue the full four minute cycle, and thus the trial court erred in finding that the Intoxilyzer test was “terminated.”

The Commissioner’s argument is not well taken. The Commissioner does not dispute the fact that respondent was not allowed the full four minutes to blow into the machine, and that the machine can only record an adequate sample, if ever, if people blow into it. Thus, allowing it to run for four minutes with no one blowing into it is tantamount to terminating testing.

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Bluebook (online)
400 N.W.2d 195, 1987 Minn. App. LEXIS 4018, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-commissioner-of-public-safety-minnctapp-1987.