State v. Wallin

195 N.W.2d 95, 1972 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 765
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedFebruary 25, 1972
Docket54202
StatusPublished
Cited by70 cases

This text of 195 N.W.2d 95 (State v. Wallin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Wallin, 195 N.W.2d 95, 1972 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 765 (iowa 1972).

Opinions

LeGRAND, Justice.

Defendant was involved in a fatal accident on October 4, 1969, when he drove his car into the rear of a truck on Interstate 80 near the city of Des Moines. The driver of the truck, David Clark Mally, died instantly as a result of the collision.

Subsequently defendant was charged with manslaughter. Upon trial to a jury, he was found guilty and was sentenced to a term of not more than eight years at the Men’s Reformatory at Anamosa under section 690.10, The Code. He appeals from this judgment.

In his assignment of errors, defendant raises three issues upon which he relies for reversal. They are:

(1) Error in submitting certain instructions to the jury;

(2) Refusal to suppress evidence of blood test; and

(3)Error in admitting medical testimony of Dr. Luka, County Medical Examiner.

I. We consider, first, the admission of evidence concerning the amount of alcohol in defendant’s blood immediately after the accident since we reverse and remand for a new trial on this assignment.

The trial court’s ruling on this matter involves, once again, an interpretation of chapter 321B, The Code, commonly referred to as the Implied Consent Law, which was first enacted by the Sixtieth General Assembly in 1963. Since then this statute has been before us on a number of occasions.

The Implied Consent Law assumes a motorist using our public highways has consented to a test of his blood (or to other chemical tests not applicable here) upon his arrest for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicating beverage. Section 321B.3.

The law was enacted to help reduce the appalling number of highway deaths resulting in part at least from intoxicated drivers. State v. Charlson, 261 Iowa 497, 502, 154 N.W.2d 829, 832 (1967); Krueger v. Fulton, 169 N.W.2d 875, 878 (Iowa 1969). Its constitutionality was established early by State v. Johnson, 257 Iowa 1052, 1062, 135 N.W.2d 518, 525 (1965), and, it is no longer seriously challenged on constitutional grounds. Recently uncertainty over the application of the law to criminal prosecutions as well as administrative proceedings to suspend driving privileges was settled by State v. Hraha, Iowa, 193 N.W.2d 484 filed January 13, 1972, where we said the provisions of the statute were to be .observed in both.

Briefly summarized The Implied Consent Law provides that when a person has been placed under arrest for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicating beverage, a blood or other chemical test to determine the alcoholic content of his blood may be demanded by written request of a peace officer having [97]*97reasonable grounds to believe the person guilty of that offense. Consent may be refused, in which event no test may be required and the suspension provisions of section 32IB.7 become operative.

If, however, consent is given, as it was here, the statute prescribes the test shall be given within (1) two hours after arrest; by (2) a licensed physician, or a medical technologist or registered nurse designated by a licensed physician as his representatives, acting at the written request of a peace officer; and by the use of (3) “only new, originally factory wrapped, disposable syringes and needles, kept under strictly sanitary and sterile conditions.” Section 32 IB.4.

These protective standards were adopted by the legislature both to protect the health of the person submitting to a test and to guarantee its accuracy for use in later judicial proceedings. State v. Charlson, 261 Iowa 497, 508, 154 N.W.2d 829, 835 (1967).

Complaint is made here that these statutory standards were not followed in two important respects. First, defendant’s blood was taken without a peace officer having first requested the doctor in writing to do so, and (2) the syringe and needle used were not new originally factory wrapped and disposable as required by the statute.

The State does not claim otherwise, but argues such departures from the statute are unimportant; that there was “substantial compliance” with the Implied Consent Law; and that we have already decided this question in State v. Charlson, supra.

The questions to be answered have been considered under varying circumstances not only in State v. Charlson, supra, but also in State v. Boner, 186 N.W.2d 161 (Iowa 1971).

The State relies heavily on the Charlson case. There, as here, the syringe and needle did not meet statutory requirements and there, as here, no written request was made by the officer to the person who took defendant’s blood for testing purposes.

However, the decisive distinction between the two lies in the fact that in Charlson the defendant not only consented to a test but requested one be made. The Charlson opinion repeatedly relies on that request as justification for the conclusion reached. We think it was the determining factor in our holding that failure to observe the statute in the two particulars mentioned did not render the results inadmissible at defendant’s trial.

Then in 1971, we decided State v. Boner, supra, where we reversed a conviction for manslaughter because the results of a blood test taken in violation of the statutory conditions were admitted to show defendant’s intoxication. That case involved a defendant who was unable to give consent because of his - injuries and it was therefore controlled by section 321B.5. We held failure of a peace officer to make written request to the doctor to withdraw a blood sample (section 321B.4) and the additional failure of the doctor to certify that defendant was incapable of consenting or refusing to a test (section 321B.5) were fatal to the admission of the test findings.

We mention parenthetically that between Charlson and Boner, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals decided Jacobsen v. International Transport, Inc., 391 F.2d 49 (1968), which considered the withdrawal of blood from a cadaver. We believe the holding there is in conflict with our later Boner case, which, of course is controlling for us. The present case does not fit the pattern of either Charlson, where defendant requested a test, or Boner, where defendant was unable to give consent or refusal. We must now decide the extent to which we will permit departure from the statute when consent to a test is obtained under its specific terms.

We believe Charlson should be limited to its particular circumstances — -a request that a blood test be taken. We decline to extend it beyond the conditions which there existed.

[98]*98What we said in State v. Shelton, 176 N.W.2d 159, 161 (Iowa 1970), is applicable here:

“The foundation requirements [concerning designation of a person to withdraw blood and the type of syringe and needle used in doing so] should not be difficult to establish.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
195 N.W.2d 95, 1972 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 765, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wallin-iowa-1972.