Paul v. State ex rel. Department of Public Safety

2013 OK CIV APP 95, 313 P.3d 292, 2013 WL 5859977, 2013 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 84
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 26, 2013
DocketNo. 111848
StatusPublished

This text of 2013 OK CIV APP 95 (Paul v. State ex rel. Department of Public Safety) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Paul v. State ex rel. Department of Public Safety, 2013 OK CIV APP 95, 313 P.3d 292, 2013 WL 5859977, 2013 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 84 (Okla. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

P. THOMAS THORNBRUGH, Presiding Judge.

{1 Plaintiff Christian Paul appeals an order of the district court affirming the revocation of his driving privileges under Oklahoma's implied consent laws. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm the trial court's decision sustaining the revocation.

BACKGROUND

2 The underlying facts are not disputed. During the early morning hours of May 12, 2011, Paul was taken into custody by Officer John Miller of the Madill, Oklahoma, police department, at the parking lot of a local Love's Country Store for suspicion of APC. Officers had received a call from a Love's representative stating that there was a vehicle with the engine running in the parking lot, that it had been there for a little while, and that no one had exited the vehicle. The caller requested that the officers come to the location and do a "welfare check." When officers arrived they observed Paul slumped over the steering wheel of a blue Dodge truck. The engine of the vehicle was running. Officer Miller, who was the first to arrive at the scene, knocked on the window several times trying to get Paul's attention. Paul sat up, looked at Miller, and then leaned back over the steering wheel. After several minutes, Paul opened the door, and Miller immediately smelled the odor of an aleoholic beverage coming from inside the vehicle. Officers noticed that Paul had red, watery eyes, seemed confused as to where he was, and had difficulty in complying with the officers' request to see his driver's license. Deputy Michael Henry of the Marshall County Sheriffs Office, who had been called to back Miller, testified that he also smelled the strong odor of an intoxicating beverage; that Paul seemed very disoriented; and that Paul was unable to stand without holding on to the door of the truck.

T8 Paul testified under oath at the revocation hearing that he was indeed drunk; and that he had spent the night bar hopping and was in no condition to be operating a motor vehicle. Officer Miller operated Paul's vehicle before they left the scene by moving it forwards and backwards.

T4 Paul was subsequently arrested under suspicion of APC. Officer Miller read Paul the implied consent advisory and asked Paul if he would take the State's test. Paul subsequently refused to take the test and indicated his refusal in, writing by signing the Officer's Affidavit and Notice of Revoecation/Disqualifi-cation.

[294]*294{5 Paul does not dispute that he was intoxicated while slumped over the steering wheel of a vehicle which was running and capable of being operated at the time of his arrest. His sole issue on appeal is that the State failed to show by competent evidence that he intended to drive the vehicle while he was in a state of intoxication. Paul maintains that his testimony that he only intended to sleep in the vehicle overnight until the next day, when he was sober enough to drive, was sufficient, when viewed with the other evidence, to show that Officer Miller lacked probable cause to arrest him in the first place.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

16 "On appeal, we review the district court's order in an implied consent revocation to determine whether it lacks sufficient evidentiary foundation or is erroneous as a matter of law." Brockman v. State ex rel. Okla. Dep't of Pub. Safety, 2013 OK CIV APP 48, ¶5, 301 P.3d 896, 898. A district court's rulings on disputed issues of fact in an implied consent matter will not be disturbed by this Court "if there is any evidence, or any reasonable inference to be drawn therefrom, which tends to support" the lower court's determination. Smith v. State ex rel. Dep't of Pub. Safety, 1984 OK 16, ¶7, 680 P.2d 365, 368. Here, however, the essential facts relevant to the decision are not disputed, and this Court is asked to interpret and apply state statutes and regulatory provisions to those facts. Questions of law are presented by issues of statutory interpretation and by the application of law to undisputed facts that reasonably admit of no contrary conclusion. See Duncan v. Okla. Dep't of Corr., 2004 OK 58, ¶3, 95 P.3d 1076, 1078 (statutory construction); and Seidenbach's v. Denney, 1943 OK 375, 193 Okla. 650, 146 P.2d 105 (court syllabus 2)(undisput-ed facts). Our review of issues of law is de movo, ie., without deference to the lower court's determination. Duncan at ¶3, 95 P.3d at 1078.

ANALYSIS

THE CRIME OF APC

T7 Paul was arrested for béing in actual physical control of a motor vehicle while under the influence of aleohol in violation of 47 0.8.2011 § 754. The Legislature, in making it a crime to be in actual physical control of a motor vehicle while intoxicated, intended to allow a "drunken driver to be apprehended before he strikes." Hughes v. State, 1975 OK CR 83, ¶7, 535 P.2d 1023, 1024 (emphasis added). Hughes, which upheld the conviction where the driver was asleep in the front seat of an automobile with his feet on the floorboard underneath the steering wheel in the roadway, elaborated that:

We believe that an intoxicated person seated behind the steering wheel of a motor vehicle is a threat to the safety and welfare of the public The danger is less than where an intoxicated person is actually driving a vehicle, but it does exist.

Id. at "I 8.

T8 In Mason v. State, 1979 OK CR 132, 603 P.2d 1146, our Court of Criminal Appeals upheld an APC conviction where the appellant was intoxicated and unconscious behind the wheel of his parked car, which was discovered with the headlights on, idling in a small parking lot. The Court noted that the appellant had "created a highly dangerous situation by placing himself behind the wheel of his car and starting the engine while intoxicated." Id. at T8, 603 P.2d at 1148. In rejecting the argument that the occupant of a vehicle cannot, while asleep, exercise control over a vehicle within the meaning of the statute in place at the time, the Court reasoned:

We cannot allow the appellant to later extricate himself from these self-created dangerous cireumstances by being discovered while unconscious. Such a rule would benefit the most blatant violators of the statute, while punishing individuals found in violation of the statute but intoxicated to a lesser extent.

Id.

19 In State ex rel. Department of Public Safety v. Kelley, 2007 OK CIV APP 99, 172 P.3d 231, which is relied upon by Paul as authority for his proposition that the police lacked probable cause to arrest him where it was not shown that he intended to [295]*295drive, the Court set forth a comprehensive review of the published case law addressing this issue. The Court noted that APC determinations must be made on a case-by-case basis. Intoxicated occupants of motor vehicles do not have to be awake or conscious to be APC if they are found behind the wheel with the keys in the ignition, whether or not the engine is running. Id. at 112, 172 P.3d at 285. A defendant located in the driver's seat of the vehicle, and in a position to operate the vehicle upon waking or regaining consciousness, may be found to be in APC even though intent was temporarily lacking because the driver happened to be asleep or unconscious. See Wofford v. State, 1987 OK CR 148, 739 P.2d 543; Mason v. State, 1979 OK CR 132, 603 P.2d 1146; Hughes v. State, 1975 OK CR 83, 535 P.2d 1023; Cudjoe a. State, 1974 OK CR 75, 521 P.2d 409.

PROBABLE CAUSE

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Related

Smith v. State Ex Rel. Department of Public Safety
1984 OK 16 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1984)
Wofford v. State
739 P.2d 543 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1987)
Hughes v. State
1975 OK CR 83 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1975)
Mason v. State
1979 OK CR 132 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1979)
Duncan v. Oklahoma Department of Corrections
2004 OK 58 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 2004)
Seidenbach's v. Denney
1943 OK 375 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1943)
Cudjoe v. State
1974 OK CR 75 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1974)
State ex rel. Department of Public Safety v. Kelley
2007 OK CIV APP 99 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 2007)
Brockman v. State ex rel. Oklahoma Department of Public Safety
2013 OK CIV APP 48 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2013 OK CIV APP 95, 313 P.3d 292, 2013 WL 5859977, 2013 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 84, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/paul-v-state-ex-rel-department-of-public-safety-oklacivapp-2013.