State v. Fanning

557 S.W.3d 449
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 24, 2018
DocketWD 81158
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 557 S.W.3d 449 (State v. Fanning) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri 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. Fanning, 557 S.W.3d 449 (Mo. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

Lisa White Hardwick, Judge

The State appeals the dismissal of a misdemeanor charge against Helen Fanning for violation of the compulsory school attendance law. The State argues that the circuit court erred in finding that Section 167.031.1, RSMo 2016,1 is ambiguous as to whether a parent's failure to cause a child between the ages of seven and sixteen to regularly attend school constitutes a misdemeanor under Section 167.061. Because we find that the plain language of Sections 167.031.1 and 167.061 unambiguously criminalizes such conduct, we reverse the circuit court's dismissal and remand the case.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In 2017, the State charged Fanning with violating the compulsory school attendance law, Sections 167.031 and 167.061, by failing to cause her son to attend a required academic program on a regular basis. The State alleged in its probable cause statement that Fanning's son, who was thirteen years old at the time, was habitually absent *451or tardy from his middle school and had an attendance rate of 82%.

Fanning filed a motion to dismiss for failure to charge an offense. In her motion, she alleged that the plain language of Sections 167.031 and 167.061 criminalizes only a parent's failure to cause a child between the ages of five and seven to attend school regularly and does not criminalize a parent's failure to cause a child who is between the ages seven and the district's compulsory attendance age, which is sixteen, to attend school regularly.

The court held a hearing on Fanning's motion. Fanning reiterated her argument that the plain language of Sections 167.031 and 167.061 criminalizes only nonattendance by children between the ages of five and seven. Alternatively, she argued that the statutes are ambiguous and, pursuant to the rule of lenity, should be construed in her favor. Following the hearing, the court agreed with Fanning and found that the statutes are ambiguous and should be construed in her favor. Therefore, the court dismissed the information for failure to charge an offense. The State appeals.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

In reviewing the sufficiency of an information, we consider whether the information:

(1) properly advise[d] the defendant of the nature and cause of the accusation against him; (2) consist[ed] of a plain, concise and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged; (3) state[d] facts which constitute the offense charged with reasonable certainty; and (4) ma[d]e the averments so clear and distinct that there could be no difficulty in determining what evidence would be admissible under them.

State v. Fernow , 328 S.W.3d 429, 430 (Mo. App. 2010) (citation omitted). In her motion to dismiss, Fanning did not contest the language per se of the misdemeanor information. Instead, she argued that that statutes cited in the information were not intended to define a criminal offense. Hence, the issue before us is one of statutory interpretation. Statutory interpretation is an issue of law, which we review de novo. State v. Jacobson , 526 S.W.3d 228, 232 (Mo. App. 2017).

ANALYSIS

In its sole point on appeal, the State contends the circuit court erred in dismissing the information on the basis that the State failed to charge an offense. The State argues that it alleged facts constituting a violation of a provision of Section 167.031, and the plain language of Section 167.061 criminalizes noncompliance with that provision.

The goal of statutory interpretation is to ascertain the legislature's intent from the language used and to give effect to that intent if possible. State v. Jones , 479 S.W.3d 100, 106 (Mo. banc 2016). In doing so, we accord the language its plain and ordinary meaning, and where the language is clear, we must give effect to the language as written. State v. Baldwin , 484 S.W.3d 894, 897 (Mo. App. 2016). We presume "the legislature intended every word, clause, sentence, and provision of a statute to have effect and did not insert superfluous language into the statute." Frye v. Levy , 440 S.W.3d 405, 420 (Mo. banc 2014). We also presume "that all statutes relating to the same subject matter are in pari materia and are intended to be construed together, consistently and harmoniously." K.H. v. State , 403 S.W.3d 720, 722 (Mo. App. 2013). "The construction of statutes is not to be hyper-technical, but instead is to be reasonable and logical and [to] give meaning to the statutes." Frye, 440 S.W.3d at 420 (citation omitted). "[W]e avoid interpretations of statutes that lead to an unreasonable *452or absurd result." Pitts v. Williams , 315 S.W.3d 755, 762 (Mo. App. 2010).

The two statutes at issue in this case are Sections 167.061 and 167.031. Section 167.061 states, in pertinent part: "Any parent, guardian, or other person having charge, control or custody of a child, who violates the provisions of section 167.031 is guilty of a class C misdemeanor." Section 167.031 is the compulsory school attendance law. It provides, in pertinent part:

1. Every parent, guardian or other person in this state having charge, control or custody of a child not enrolled in a public, private, parochial, parish school or full-time equivalent attendance in a combination of such schools and between the ages of seven years and the compulsory attendance age for the district is responsible for enrolling the child in a program of academic instruction which complies with subsection 2 of this section. Any parent, guardian or other person who enrolls a child between the ages of five and seven years in a public school program of academic instruction shall cause such child to attend the academic program on a regular basis, according to this section.

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Related

State of Missouri v. Jeanne Capozzoli
578 S.W.3d 841 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2019)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
557 S.W.3d 449, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-fanning-moctapp-2018.