State v. Eikleberry

920 N.E.2d 394, 184 Ohio App. 3d 219
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 27, 2009
DocketNo. 08CA0048
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 920 N.E.2d 394 (State v. Eikleberry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Eikleberry, 920 N.E.2d 394, 184 Ohio App. 3d 219 (Ohio Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

Dickinson, Judge.

INTRODUCTION

{¶ 1} A police officer stopped Harold Eikleberry as he pulled away from a gas station because his vehicle did not have any license plates. The officer cited him under R.C. 4503.11 for driving an unregistered motor vehicle. The vehicle is a 1969 Ford F-250 pickup truck that has been customized to include a drilling rig in its bed and “corner” or “leveling” jacks on either side of the rear of the bed. At trial, Eikleberry argued that he did not have to register the vehicle because it is well-drilling machinery. The trial court concluded that it did not fall within the exception because “[t]he machinery was not being used within the intended purpose of the exemption” at the time of the stop. Eikleberry has appealed, arguing that his conviction is against the manifest weight of the evidence. This court reverses because the vehicle Eikleberry was driving is not a “motor vehicle” under R.C. 4503.11(A).

MOTOR VEHICLE

{¶ 2} Eikleberry’s assignment of error is that his conviction under R.C. 4503.11 is against the manifest weight of the evidence. When a defendant argues that his conviction is against the manifest weight of the evidence, this court “must review the entire record, weigh the evidence and all reasonable inferences, consider the credibility of witnesses and determine whether, in resolving conflicts in the evidence, the trier of fact clearly lost its way and created such a manifest miscarriage of justice that the conviction must be reversed and a new trial ordered.” State v. Otten (1986), 33 Ohio App.3d 339, 340, 515 N.E.2d 1009.

{¶ 3} R.C. 4503.11(A) provides that “no person who is the owner * * * of a motor vehicle operated or driven upon the public roads or highways shall fail to [222]*222file annually the application for registration or to pay the tax therefor.” “Whoever violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor of the fourth degree.” R.C. 4503.11(D). Motor vehicles are variously defined in several sections of the Ohio Revised Code. “As used in * * * Chapter[ ] 4503 * * * ‘[m]otor vehicle’ means any vehicle * * * that is propelled or drawn by power other than muscular power or power collected from overhead electric trolley wires. ‘Motor vehicle’ does not include utility vehicles * * *, road rollers, traction engines, power shovels, power cranes, and other equipment used in construction work and not designed for or employed in general highway transportation, well-drilling machinery, ditch-digging machinery, farm machinery, and trailers that are designed and used exclusively to transport a boat * * R.C. 4501.01(B). “For the purposes of [S]ection [4503.11], * * * ‘motor vehicle’ also includes a motorized bicycle and a trailer or semitrailer whose weight is four thousand pounds or less.” R.C. 4503.01. “[W]hether a particular vehicle falls within a definition of a ‘motor vehicle’ is normally a question of law.” Muenchenbach v. Preble Cty. (2001), 91 Ohio St.3d 141, 148, 742 N.E.2d 1128, fn. 1.

{¶ 4} “ ‘In the construction of statutes the purpose in every instance is to ascertain and give effect to the legislative intent, and it is well settled that none of the language employed therein should be disregarded, and that all of the terms used should be given their usual and ordinary meaning and signification except where the lawmaking body has indicated that the language is not so used.’ ” Weaver v. Edwin Shaw Hosp., 104 Ohio St.3d 390, 2004-Ohio-6549, 819 N. E.2d 1079, at ¶ 12, quoting Carter v. Youngstown Div. of Water (1946), 146 Ohio St. 203, 32 O.O. 184, 65 N.E.2d 63, paragraph one of the syllabus. Courts “ ‘must look to the statute itself to determine legislative intent, and if such intent is clearly expressed therein, the statute may not be restricted, constricted, qualified, narrowed, enlarged or abridged; significance and effect should, if possible, be accorded to every word, phrase, sentence and part of an act, and in the absence of any definition of the intended meaning of words or terms used in a legislative enactment, they will, in the interpretation of the act, be given their common, ordinary and accepted meaning in the connection in which they are used.’ ” Id. at ¶ 13, quoting Wachendorf v. Shaver (1948), 149 Ohio St. 231, 36 O.O. 554, 78 N.E.2d 370, paragraph five of the syllabus.

{¶ 5} In Muenchenbach v. Preble Cty., 91 Ohio St.3d 141, 742 N.E.2d 1128, the Ohio Supreme Court considered the definition of “motor vehicle” under R.C. 4511.01(B), which is similar to the definition of that term under R.C. 4501.01(B). Id. at 142, 742 N.E.2d 1128. The question was whether a “four-wheeled * * * tractor, equipped with a street-sweeping brush on the front and a scraper blade on the back” was “other equipment used in construction work and not designed for or employed in general highway transportation.” Id. at 142, 143, 742 N.E.2d [223]*2231128. The county argued that all vehicles used in construction fall within the exception, “regardless of how they were used at the time of the accident.” Id. at 145, 742 N.E.2d 1128. The Supreme Court rejected its argument, noting that R.C. 4501.01(B) and 4511.01(B) “do not except construction equipment from the definition of ‘motor vehicle’ on the basis of its principal use or dedicated purpose [or] * * * when used ‘principally,’ ‘primarily,’ or ‘generally’ for construction purposes, or in construction work. They do provide that, in order for other equipment used in construction work to be excepted, it must not be ‘employed in general highway transportation.’ ” Id. at 146, 742 N.E.2d 1128. It concluded that “if the General Assembly intended for construction equipment to be classified and excepted according to its principal, primary, general, or dedicated use, regardless of how used when it causes damage or injury, then it [was] incumbent upon the General Assembly to so provide.” Id.

{¶ 6} In Muenchenbach, the Supreme Court noted that “[t]he application or rejection of a use standard [is] not * * * an all-or-nothing proposition. R.C. 4501.01(B) and 4511.01(B) are syntactically constructed to provide a working definition of ‘motor vehicle,’ followed by a series of exceptions. Some of these exceptions are specific in nature and some are general in nature; some are characterized as a type of vehicle and some are distinguished by function. Some of the exceptions are followed by limiting or modifying clauses, or subject to definitional qualifications, while others stand unqualified.” Muenchenbach, 91 Ohio St.3d at 147, 742 N.E.2d 1128.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
920 N.E.2d 394, 184 Ohio App. 3d 219, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-eikleberry-ohioctapp-2009.