State v. Ankney

766 P.2d 1131, 53 Wash. App. 393, 1989 Wash. App. LEXIS 30
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedJanuary 30, 1989
DocketNo. 20640-1-I
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 766 P.2d 1131 (State v. Ankney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Ankney, 766 P.2d 1131, 53 Wash. App. 393, 1989 Wash. App. LEXIS 30 (Wash. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

Webster, J.

—The State of Washington seeks discretionary review of a decision that the penalty scheme for violations of King County's animal control regulations violates [394]*394equal protection. The District and Superior Courts invalidated the penalty provisions in KCC 11.04.190 and KCC 11.04.200 because, read together, they allegedly permit King County animal control authorities to punish animal control violations as either civil penalties or misdemeanors.

Facts

The defendant's dog bit the hand of another person on August 23, 1986. A King County animal control officer responded by citing the defendant with violating KCC 11.04.230(H). KCC 11.04.230(H) declares the following to be a criminal nuisance: "Any animal which has exhibited vicious propensities and which constitutes a danger to the safety of persons or property off [the owner's] premises or lawfully on his premises".

The defendant admitted at trial that his dog had bitten the victim. However, the defendant argued that the victim was a trespasser. The District Court did not decide whether the victim was "lawfully on" the defendant's premises, because the court accepted the defendant's later argument that criminal punishment would be unconstitutional.

The defendant argued that the penalty scheme in KCC 11.04.190 and KCC 11.04.200 violated equal protection. KCC 11.04.190 makes all animal control violations misdemeanors,1 and KCC 11.04.200 mandates a civil penalty "[i]n addition to or as an alternative to" criminal punishment.2 According to the memorandum opinion of another [395]*395judge on the same issue, which the District Court adopted as its own analysis,

[tjhese statutes permit charging officials to choose whether a person faces the stigma of a criminal record, with risk of jail, or only suffers a monetary penalty as a civil infraction. The power to make such a choice cannot be countenanced with the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of law.

King County v. Manderson, Renton Dist. Ct. cause AC 1582-84 (Dec. 17, 1986). T Superior Court affirmed without discussion, apparently agreeing with the District Court's analysis.

Constitutionality of KCC 11.04.190 and KCC 11.04.200

We do not agree with the District and Superior Courts. The Supreme Court upheld a virtually identical penalty scheme against equal protection objections in Yakima Cy. Clean Air Auth. v. Glascam Builders, Inc., 85 Wn.2d 255, 534 P.2d 33 (1975). The court held that "it is constitutionally permissible to provide for civil or criminal penalties, or both, for the same act." Yakima Clean Air, at 260. The first of the two statutes upheld in Yakima Clean Air made violations of the clean air act misdemeanors. See former RCW 70.94.430.3 The second established mandatory [396]*396civil penalties for each violation " [i]n addition to or as an alternate to any other penalty provided by law". See former RCW 70.94.431.4 The penalty scheme in KCC 11.04.190 and KCC 11.04.200 is essentially identical to the scheme upheld in Yakima Clean Air. See footnotes 1, 2.

Nevertheless, the defendant suggests that Yakima Clean Air did not address the equal protection argument that he advances. The defendant cites Olsen v. Delmore, 48 Wn.2d 545, 295 P.2d 324 (1956) and State v. Mason, 34 Wn. App. 514, 663 P.2d 137 (1983), which recently followed Olsen, in support of his argument. The defendant overlooks that Yakima Clean Air distinguished Olsen. See 85 Wn.2d at 259. He misses the distinction drawn there between (1) misdemeanor and felony penalties for the same conduct, and (2) mandatory civil liability as an additional or alternative penalty. See Yakima Clean Air, at 259-60. The Olsen and Mason cases cited by the defendant and apparently relied upon by the lower courts involve the first situation, not the second.

Even so, the defendant contends that the dispositive issue in this case is whether the penalty is penal or remedial. He cites State v. Von Thiele, 47 Wn. App. 558, 736 P.2d 297, review denied, 108 Wn.2d 1029 (1987), and United States v. Ward, 448 U.S. 242, 65 L. Ed. 2d 742, 100 S. Ct. 2636 (1980). The defendant's reliance on Von Thiele [397]*397and Ward is misplaced. The only reason Von Thiele distinguished between "penal" and "remedial" punishment provisions is that due process requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt of the elements of the former but not the latter. See 47 Wn. App. at 562; In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 25 L. Ed. 2d 368, 90 S. Ct. 1068 (1970); United States v. Regan, 232 U.S. 37, 47-48, 58 L. Ed. 494, 34 S. Ct. 213 (1914). Ward distinguished between "civil penalties" that are truly civil and those that are criminal in character because the Fifth Amendment privilege against compulsory self-incrimination applies "in any criminal case", U.S. Const. amend. 5, as well as in quasi-criminal cases, Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 633-34, 29 L. Ed. 746, 6 S. Ct. 524 (1886), but not in civil enforcement proceedings. Ward, 448 U.S. at 248, 251-55. Von Thiele and Ward do not purport to address equal protection, and certainly do not alter the holding in Yakima Clean Air, that "it is constitutionally permissible to provide for civil or criminal penalties, or both, for the same act." 85 Wn.2d at 260. Both Von Thiele and Ward rejected arguments made by the defendants in those cases, that the character of their punishment was penal, holding instead that the penalties imposed were civil.

Notably, Ward held that a "civil penalty" label "takes on added significance" when an immediately preceding paragraph of the same statute sets forth criminal liability. 448 U.S. at 249. In such circumstances "only the clearest proof", Ward, at 249 (quoting Fleming v. Nestor, 363 U.S. 603, 617-21 (I960)), "that the penalty ... is punitive either in purpose or effect", Ward, at 251, can suffice "to establish the unconstitutionality of a statute on such a ground.'" Ward, at 249 (quoting Fleming v. Nestor, supra). The fact that another statute criminalizes the same conduct redressed by the civil penalty does provide the necessary proof. 448 U.S. at 250.

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Bluebook (online)
766 P.2d 1131, 53 Wash. App. 393, 1989 Wash. App. LEXIS 30, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ankney-washctapp-1989.