Keeney v. Department of Justice

2006 MT 152, 139 P.3d 814, 332 Mont. 446, 2006 Mont. LEXIS 320
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 11, 2006
Docket05-474
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2006 MT 152 (Keeney v. Department of Justice) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keeney v. Department of Justice, 2006 MT 152, 139 P.3d 814, 332 Mont. 446, 2006 Mont. LEXIS 320 (Mo. 2006).

Opinions

JUSTICE MORRIS

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶1 Ronald Duane Keeney (Keeney) appeals from the denial by the District Court for the Fourth Judicial District, Missoula County, of his petition to reinstate his driver’s license. We affirm.

¶2 Keeney presents the following issue on appeal: Whether the Department of Justice (Department) could revoke Keeney’s driver’s license despite its failure to provide Keeney with the notice required by the former § 61-11-204(3), MCA (2001).

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

¶3 Keeney had a need for speed. This need manifested itself in him wracking up 10 speeding tickets within 30 months. The Department mailed to Keeney on July 27, 2004, a “Habitual traffic offender declaration and notice of revocation/appeal rights.” The notice informed Keeney that the Department’s records indicated that he had accumulated 30 or more conviction points related to use or operation of a motor vehicle within a three-year period. The Department informed Keeney that state law required it to declare him a habitual traffic offender and to revoke his driver’s license for a period of three years. The Department attached a certified copy of Keeney’s driving record to the notice. The certified copy of Keeney’s driving record reflected the fact that he had been convicted of 10 three-point speeding violations during the period of October 23, 2001, through April 21, 2004. In fact, Keeney accumulated 18 conviction points between October 23, 2001, and May 2, 2003.

¶4 Keeney contested the Department’s actions and filed a petition for judicial review asking that the habitual offender designation be revoked and that the Department reinstate his driver’s license. Keeney first argued to the District Court that Montana law, and not Idaho law, should apply to speed limits on Idaho highways. Keeney had received at least one of his speeding tickets while driving in Idaho. The District Court summarily dismissed his claim.

¶5 Keeney also argued to the District Court that Montana law as it existed on May 2,2003, the date on which he racked up his eighteenth conviction point within a two year period, required the Department to [448]*448notify Keeney that he had accumulated 18 points within a two year period. The notice would have informed Keeney that the Department would suspend his license unless he completed a certified driver rehabilitation and improvement course. The District Court also rejected this claim. It noted that the legislature amended § 61-11-204, MCA, with an effective date of May 5, 2003, to eliminate the notification requirement. Idaho law enforcement stopped Keeney for speeding in April 2003. He forfeited bond on May 2, 2003. The State did not receive notification of Keeney’s May 2, 2003, conviction from Idaho, however, until May 28,2003. By that date, the notice statute no longer was in effect and the District Court concluded that the Department had correctly applied the law as it existed on May 5,2003. This appeal followed.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶6 The denial of a petition to reinstate a driver’s license presents mixed questions of fact and law. See Widdicombe v. State ex rel. Lafond, 2004 MT 49, ¶ 7, 320 Mont. 133, ¶ 7, 85 P.3d 1271, ¶ 7. We review a district court's findings of fact to determine whether they are clearly erroneous. In re McKenzie, 2001 MT 25, ¶ 5, 304 Mont. 153, ¶ 5, 19 P.3d 221, ¶ 5. We conduct plenary review of a district court’s conclusions of law to determine whether they are correct. City of Billings v. Gonzales, 2006 MT 24, ¶ 6, 331 Mont. 71, ¶ 6, 128 P.3d 1014, ¶ 6.

DISCUSSION

¶7 Section 61-11-203, MCA (2001), defined the term “driver in need of rehabilitation and improvement” as “a person who within a 2-year period accumulates 18 or more conviction points according to the schedule specified in subsection (3).” Section 61-11-204, MCA (2001), further provided that the Department shall notify such habitual offender “that -unless the person enrolls in and successfully completes, within 90 days of notification, a certified driver rehabilitation and improvement course” as provided by § 61-2-302, MCA, “the person’s driver’s license will be suspended for a period not to exceed six months or until the person has successfully completed the course, whichever occurs first.” The legislature repealed this notice requirement, effective May 5, 2003, pursuant to the enactment of 2003 Mont. Laws, Ch. 556, Sec. 11, 12. See Compilers Comments to §§ 61-11-203, 204, MCA (2003).

¶8 Keeney argues on appeal that the Department violated his due [449]*449process rights by failing to provide him notice of his status as an habitual offender as former § 61-11-204(3)(b), MCA (2001), required. He contends that the date of his Idaho conviction on May 2, 2003, before the statutory amendment took effect, controls for purposes of his point accumulation and thereby obligated the Department to provide the requisite notice. He argues that “reasonable reliance” and “fair notice” counsel against applying the legislative amendment to his license revocation. He asserts that he and other Montana drivers possessed the statutory assurance that “they would know if and when they had accumulated enough conviction points to warrant modification of their driving behavior and how the accumulation of 18 conviction points would be evaluated by the department.” The State counters that Keeney couches his argument in terms of due process, but actually challenges what he considers to be the retroactive application of the repealed amendment set forth in 2003 Mont. Laws, Ch. 556. We agree.

¶9 “No law contained in any of the statutes of Montana is retroactive unless expressly so declared.” Section 1-2-109, MCA. For purposes of this provision, “retroactive” means “a statute which takes away or impairs vested rights, acquired under existing laws, or creates a new obligation, imposes a new duty or attaches a new disability, in respect to transactions already past.” Allen v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 2005 MT 281, ¶ 16, 329 Mont. 230, ¶ 16, 124 P.3d 132, ¶ 16. A retroactive or retrospective law “gives a transaction a different legal effect from that which it had under the law when it occurred.” St. Vincent Hosp. v. Blue Cross (1993), 261 Mont. 56, 60, 862 P.2d 6, 9.

¶10 Keeney argues that he possessed a valid Montana driver’s license and once issued, he has an important interest in retaining it. As a result, he contends that his driver’s license cannot be suspended or revoked without the procedural due process guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. See Dixon v. Love (1977), 431 U.S. 105, 112, 97 S.Ct. 1723, 1727, 52 L.Ed.2d 172. Keeney’s argument hinges on the assumption that he possessed a substantive right to receive the notice. We decline to recognize such a substantive right.

¶11 In Williams v. Wellman-Power Gas, Inc. (1977), 174 Mont. 387, 390-91, 571 P.2d 90, 92, we concluded that application of an amendment extending the statute of limitations to claims not already barred at the time that the amendment took effect would not constitute retroactive application, because "[n]o vested rights are taken away or impaired." We rejected a property owner’s claim that she had a vested property interest to operate a bar on her property in Germann

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Mordja v. Montana Eleventh Judicial District Court
2008 MT 24 (Montana Supreme Court, 2008)
Keeney v. Department of Justice
2006 MT 152 (Montana Supreme Court, 2006)

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Bluebook (online)
2006 MT 152, 139 P.3d 814, 332 Mont. 446, 2006 Mont. LEXIS 320, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keeney-v-department-of-justice-mont-2006.