Pamela Manic v. Tucson City Attorney's Office

CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedFebruary 16, 2006
Docket2 CA-CV 2005-0128
StatusPublished

This text of Pamela Manic v. Tucson City Attorney's Office (Pamela Manic v. Tucson City Attorney's Office) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pamela Manic v. Tucson City Attorney's Office, (Ark. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

FILED BY CLERK IN THE COURT OF APPEALS FEB 16 2006 STATE OF ARIZONA COURT OF APPEALS DIVISION TWO DIVISION TWO

PAMELA MANIC, ) ) 2 CA-CV 2005-0128 Petitioner/Appellee, ) DEPARTMENT B ) v. ) OPINION ) HONORABLE KATE DAWES, Judge of ) the Tucson City Court of the State of ) Arizona in and for the County of Pima, ) ) Respondent, ) ) and ) ) TUCSON CITY ATTORNEY’S ) OFFICE, ) ) Real Party in Interest/Appellant. ) )

APPEAL FROM THE SUPERIOR COURT OF PIMA COUNTY

Cause No. C-20051824

Honorable Frank Dawley, Judge Pro Tempore

AFFIRMED

David Alan Darby and Natasha Wrae Tucson Attorneys for Petitioner/Appellee

Michael G. Rankin, Tucson City Attorney By Laura Brynwood and William F. Mills Tucson Attorneys for Real Party in Interest/Appellant

B R A M M E R, Judge. ¶1 The state appeals from the superior court’s ruling in a special action proceeding

filed by appellee Pamela Manic that challenged the respondent Tucson city magistrate’s order

denying Manic a jury trial. The court held that, as a defendant in a misdemeanor driving

under the influence of an intoxicant (DUI) case, Manic has the right to a jury trial. We agree

and affirm the ruling.

Factual and Procedural Background

¶2 Manic was cited in May 2004 for two violations of A.R.S. § 28-1381, driving

or being in actual physical control of a vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant or

while impaired to the slightest degree and having a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08

or more within two hours of driving or being in physical control of a vehicle. The case

proceeded in the Tucson City Court.

¶3 Before the date scheduled for Manic’s trial, our supreme court decided

Derendal v. Griffith, 209 Ariz. 416, 104 P.3d 147 (2005), that arguably overruled its holding

in Rothweiler v. Superior Court, 100 Ariz. 37, 410 P.2d 479 (1966), that misdemeanor DUI

defendants have a constitutional right to a jury trial. The respondent magistrate, after a

hearing and relying on Derendal, ruled that Manic did not have the right to a jury trial. The

magistrate ruled that misdemeanor DUI had no common law antecedent and that the penalty

imposed for committing the offense was insufficient to overcome the presumption that

persons charged with committing petty offenses do not have the right to trial by jury.

Additionally, the respondent magistrate found, relying on Goldman v. Kautz, 111 Ariz. 431,

2 531 P.2d 1138 (1975), that neither A.R.S. §§ 28-1381(F) nor 28-1382(C) created a right to

a jury trial,1 because those statutes are procedural in nature.

¶4 Manic and a number of other DUI defendants filed a special action in Pima

County Superior Court challenging the respondent magistrate’s ruling. The superior court

reversed the ruling. Although the superior court agreed that DUI offenses have no common

law antecedent, it determined that Derendal had not overruled Rothweiler’s holding that the

Arizona Constitution guarantees misdemeanor DUI defendants the right to a jury trial.

Because the parties “requested a complete ruling for review purposes,” the superior court

also held that § 28-1381(F) provides a separate statutory right to a jury trial in DUI cases.

This appeal followed.

Discussion

¶5 The state first contends that, because DUI offenses have no common law

antecedent, there is no right to a jury trial for DUI defendants under article II, § 23 of the

Arizona Constitution or the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Manic

correctly points out, however, that the superior court ruled in the state’s favor on this issue

and that she did not cross-appeal from that ruling. Therefore, the state is not an aggrieved

party on this issue, see Rule 1, Ariz. R. Civ. App. P., 17B A.R.S.; see also Rule 9, Ariz. R.

Civ. App. P. (governing cross-appeals), and we do not address this argument.

1 Section 28-1381(F) is the statute at issue here. However, § 28-1382, which makes extreme DUI an offense, contains the same language in subsection (C).

3 ¶6 In Rothweiler, our supreme court ruled, based on article II, § 24 of the Arizona

Constitution, that misdemeanor DUI defendants have the right to a jury trial. 100 Ariz. at 45,

410 P.2d at 485. The court adopted a three-part test for determining when an offense was

a petty offense that did not warrant a jury trial, considering: 1) the severity of the penalty;

2) the moral quality of the act; and 3) the act’s relation to common law crimes. Id. at 42, 410

P.2d at 483. Finding that DUI had no relation to common law petty offenses, the supreme

court based its ruling on its analysis of the first two parts of the test. Id. at 43-44, 410 P.2d

at 484-85.

¶7 In Derendal, the court modified the Rothweiler test by eliminating the “moral

quality” part. 209 Ariz. 416, ¶ 32, 104 P.3d at 155. The court also ruled that any offense

punishable by no more than six months’ imprisonment is presumptively a petty offense for

which there is no constitutional right to a jury trial. Id. ¶ 21. But that presumption, it held,

may be overcome if a defendant can establish that “the offense carries additional severe,

direct, uniformly applied, statutory consequences.” Id. ¶ 37. The state contends that

Derendal creates a more stringent test for judging the severity of punishment and that the

penalties for misdemeanor DUI do not meet the new criteria.

¶8 Although the superior court ruled on the article II, § 24 constitutional question

and included analysis of the DUI statutes only for the purposes of a “complete ruling,” we

address only the meaning of § 28-1381(F) and not the constitutional claim. See State v.

Yslas, 139 Ariz. 60, 63, 676 P.2d 1118, 1121 (1984) (“[W]e do not determine constitutional

issues unless a decision is necessary to determine the merits of the action.”).

4 ¶9 The state contends that § 28-1381(F) does not create a right to a jury trial and,

instead, is procedural in nature, merely giving a defendant notice of existing rights. We

review issues of statutory construction de novo. Rowland v. Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc.,

210 Ariz. 530, ¶ 5, 115 P.3d 124, 126 (App. 2005). Section 28-1381(F) reads: “At the

arraignment, the court shall inform the defendant that the defendant may request a trial by

jury and that the request, if made, shall be granted.” 2 (Emphasis added.) After our supreme

court’s ruling in Derendal, Division One of this court held that § 28-1381(F) plainly and

unambiguously created “a substantive right to a jury trial.” State v. Smith, 211 Ariz. 101,

¶ 11, 118 P.3d 49, 52 (App. 2005). We agree.

¶10 The state argues that Goldman v. Kautz, 111 Ariz. 431, 531 P.2d 1138 (1975),

requires a different result. In that case, our supreme court analyzed A.R.S. § 22-320

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Related

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