State v. Birmingham

390 P.2d 103, 95 Ariz. 310
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedApril 14, 1964
Docket7918
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 390 P.2d 103 (State v. Birmingham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Birmingham, 390 P.2d 103, 95 Ariz. 310 (Ark. 1964).

Opinion

STRUCKMEYER, Justice.

Actions were commenced by the appel-lees David Birmingham and Myron Bradley in the Superior Court of Maricopa County as authorized by A.R.S. § 28-451 to determine whether their automobile drivers’ licenses were subject to suspension. The actions were consolidated in the superior court for decision since they presented the same question. The court entered its order permanently enjoining the suspensions by the Arizona State Highway Department, Motor Vehicle Division, for the reason that A.R.S. § 28^146, subs. A, par. 3 (as amended) 1 was an unconstitutional delegation of power in that it did not provide an adequate guide, criterion or standard for the department to act upon, thereby leaving the enforcement of the statute to the whim and uncontrolled discretion of those public officers administering the act. From that order, the state has perfected this appeal.

By A.R.S. § 28-445 (As amended Laws 1959, Ch. 142 § 1.) the legislature has set forth grounds when the state highway department shall revoke an operator’s or chauffeur’s license, as for example, manslaughter resulting from the operation of a motor vehicle. By A.R.S. § 28-446 (as amended), the highway department is permitted to suspend licenses in certain instances.

Under the authority of A.R.S. § 28-202, the superintendent of the Motor Vehicle Division of the State Highway Department has prescribed certain rules to aid in *312 carrying out the legislative directive contained in subsection A, par. 3 known as the “point system”. The accumulation of twelve points within one twelve-month period is made grounds for the initial suspension of an operator’s license.® Both appellees accumulated either twelve points or more within a twelve-month period. It is alleged that both are gainfully employed as salesmen and an operator’s license is absolutely necessary to remain employed.

Appellees agree that the legislature may delegate authority to find facts or to determine conditions under which a particular statute may operate but assert it may not constitutionally delegate authority to proclaim what the law shall be. They rely on Ariz.Const, art. 3, A.R.S., the Distribution of Powers, forbidding one department of government from exercising the powers properly belonging to another, arguing that the statute authorizing suspension fails to spell out sufficient standards to confine administrative action.

We have in the past struck down legislation as unconstitutional where either no-standard or an inadequate standard was prescribed. 2 3 We have held legislation constitutional where adequate standards were provided. 4

On numerous occasions we have quoted the language of the Illinois Supreme Court in Vallat v. Radium Dial Co., 360 Ill. 407, 196 N.E. 485, 99 A.L.R. 607:

"When it leaves the Legislature a law must be complete in all its terms, and it must be definite and certain enough to enable every person, by reading the law, to know what his rights and obligations are and how the law will op *313 erate when put into execution. * * ” See Hernandez v. Frohmiller, supra, 68 Ariz. 242 at 251, 252, 204 P.2d 854 at 860.

This does not mean that the degree to which the legislature must specify a standard is capable of precise definition. In order to avoid unconstitutional delegation of power, it is not necessary for Congress to supply administrative officials with a specific formula for their guidance in a field where flexibility and the adaption of the congressional policy to infinitely variable conditions constitutes the essence of the program. United States ex rel. Knauff v. Shaughnessy, 338 U.S. 537, 70 S.Ct. 309, 94 L.Ed. 317; Lichter v. United States, 334 U.S. 742, 68 S.Ct. 1294, 92 L.Ed. 1694.

In Haggard v. Industrial Commission, 71 Ariz. 91, 223 P.2d 915, we recognized that the standards laid down by the legislature within which the administrative body acts may be in broad and general terms. We have also noted a distinct modern tendency to be more liberal in the granting of discretion in the administrative law in fields where the complexities of economic and governmental conditions have increased, particularly where it is impractical to lay down an exact comprehensive rule. Southwest Engineering Co. v. Ernst, 79 Ariz. 403, 291 P.2d 764.

Appellees argue that the standards for administrative action must be spelled out in the legislative enactment; that if they are negligible or non-existent, a delegation of power is unconstitutional resulting in abandonment of authority and responsibility. But we think appellees are shifting the significance of the word “standard”, using it in its strictest sense as meaning an exact measure of quantity, weight, extent, value or quality rather than in the sense of a criterion or guide. See Webster’s, Third New International Dictionary, 1961.

When superficially examined in this latter sense, the statute evidences five criteria or guides by which the responsible administrative officers are to determine when a driver’s license shall be suspended. It requires (1) that the suspension be upon conviction of offenses against traffic regulations; (2) that there be frequent convictions; (3) that the offenses of which the operator has been convicted be serious offenses against traffic regulations; (4) that the offenses be against traffic regulations governing the movement of vehicles; and (5) that the convictions must be such as to show a disrespect for traffic laws and a disregard for the safety of other persons on the highway.

The word “frequency” is defined by Webster as “an occurrence often repeated” and the word “frequent” as “happening at short intervals”. Hence there must be more than one conviction for serious offenses occurring within short intervals. The word “serious” is too well understood in the English language to require definí *314 tion. The Court of Appeals of New York, in Ross v. MacDuff, 309 N.Y. 56, 127 N.E. 2d 806, 807, in upholding a statute permitting the suspension of an operator’s license used this language:

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Bluebook (online)
390 P.2d 103, 95 Ariz. 310, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-birmingham-ariz-1964.