Utah Department of Public Safety, Driver License Division v. Robot Aided Manufacturing Center, Inc.

2005 UT App 199, 113 P.3d 1014, 525 Utah Adv. Rep. 18, 2005 Utah App. LEXIS 209, 2005 WL 1039038
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedMay 5, 2005
Docket20040010-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 2005 UT App 199 (Utah Department of Public Safety, Driver License Division v. Robot Aided Manufacturing Center, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Utah Department of Public Safety, Driver License Division v. Robot Aided Manufacturing Center, Inc., 2005 UT App 199, 113 P.3d 1014, 525 Utah Adv. Rep. 18, 2005 Utah App. LEXIS 209, 2005 WL 1039038 (Utah Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

OPINION

ORME, Judge:

¶ 1 Appellant Robot -Aided Manufacturing Center, Inc., doing business as Explore Information Services (Explore), appeals -from the district court’s decision to vacate a State Records Committee order granting Explore continuing access to driving record information, on literally tens' of thousands of Utah drivers, in the same manner that Explore had previously received it. We affirm the district court.

BACKGROUND

¶2 Explore is a Minnesota corporation, registered to do business in the State of Utah. As part of its business, Explore obtains driving record information contained within the motor vehicle records of various states and provides it to insurance companies for underwriting, rating, and1 claims investigating purposes. Pursuant to an agreement between Explore and the Utah Department of Public Safety’s Driver License Division (the Division), which agreement has expired, Explore had received information concerning Utah drivers from the Division, on a monthly basis, since December 1996. The information Explore received was a list of all licensed Utah drivers who had received moving vehicle citations that were reported to the Division during the prior month. The information Explore received included a person’s name, driver license number, date of birth, type of driving violation, and the date when the violation was recorded in the Division’s database. 1 Explore would then match the names of those individuals reported for violations with names of individuals insured by the various insurance companies to whom Explore provides its services. The district court noted in its findings of fact that, through these reports, Explore obtained the identities of, and information about, 21,726 individuals in June of 2000, and 22,932 in July of 2000. The court also noted that Explore only successfully matches, on average, about 2% of those individuals reported with persons actually insured with the various insurance companies for which Explore works. In other words, 2% of what Explore learns as a kind of busy-body for hire is properly its business, while 98% is not.

¶3 On June 28, 2000, the Division informed Explore that it would not continue to provide records as requested by Explore because Explore failed to comply with the requirements of Utah Code section 53-3-104, see Utah Code Ann. § 53-3-104(9) (2002), and, additionally, because the records were private and Explore was not authorized to receive private records. 2 The Division interpreted section 53-3-104 to require that reports could only be prepared on a person-by-person basis and that a requestor must iden *1016 tify the individual about whom the driving record information is sought when the request is made.

¶ 4 Explore appealed the Division’s determination to the Department of Public Safety. The Department of Public Safety affirmed the Division’s decision, and Explore then appealed the denial to the State Records Committee (the Committee). The Committee conducted a hearing and issued a decision in favor of Explore, granting Explore continued access to the driving record information it was accustomed to receiving. The Division petitioned the district court for judicial review of the Committee’s decision. The district court determined that denial of access to the requested information was proper and lawful and that the Division “need not provide such information as requested.”

ISSUES AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 5 Explore challenges the district court’s conclusions that section • 53-3-104' governs and limits the disclosure of the Division’s records and that the only manner in which Explore is entitled to receive driving record information from the Division is by requesting motor vehicle reports in accordance with Utah Code section 53-3-104. See Utah Code Ann. § 53-3-104(9) (2002). Explore also contends that the district court erred in concluding that Explore did not otherwise qualify to access the information it wanted, in the form it wanted, under the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA), Utah Code Ann. §§ 63-2-101 to -1001 (1997 & Supp.2004).

¶ 6 The issues Explore raises on appeal present questions of statutory interpretation. “The proper interpretation of a statute is a question of law.” Rushton v. Salt Lake County, 1999 UT 36,¶ 17, 977 P.2d 1201. We review matters of statutory construction for correctness. See id. Our “review gives no deference to the trial judge’s or agency’s determination, because the appellate court has ‘the power and duty to say what the law is and to ensure that it is uniform throughout the jurisdiction.’ ” Drake v. Industrial Comm’n, 939 P.2d 177, 181 (Utah 1997) (citation omitted).

ANALYSIS

¶ 7 Explore frames the issue in this appeal not as a question of whether Explore can obtain driving record information from the Division, but as a question of which sections of the Utah Code control Explore’s access to the Division’s records. The answer to this question will dictate the procedures Explore must follow to get the information it wants. Therefore, the appropriate starting point is to decide which statutory provisions apply to Explore’s specific request for a monthly report listing the names of licensed Utah drivers who have been reported to the Division for receiving some sort of moving vehicle citation during that month.

¶ 8 Each party relies on a different section of the Utah Code and argues that it applies to Explore’s request. Explore argues that the provisions of GRAMA apply to its request and that, pursuant to GRAMA, it is entitled to the information that it is requesting be culled from the Division’s driving records and furnished to it in the manner it prefers. The Division argues that the district court correctly concluded that Explore’s request for information triggers section 53-3-104 of the Uniform Driver License Act and that Explore is not entitled to have access to its records other than by requesting information pursuant to section 53-3-104. 3

¶ 9 Section 53-3-104 specifically mandates that “[t]he [Division shall: ... search the license files, compile, and furnish a report on the driving record of any person licensed in the state in accordance with Section 53-3-109.” Utah Code Ann. § 53-3-104(9) (2002). *1017 The referenced section 53-3-109 adds a number of provisions that set limitations, provide guidelines, and grant rulemaking authority to the Division on how the Division is to provide information from the records it is statutorily mandated to keep. See Utah Code Ann. § 53

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2005 UT App 199, 113 P.3d 1014, 525 Utah Adv. Rep. 18, 2005 Utah App. LEXIS 209, 2005 WL 1039038, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/utah-department-of-public-safety-driver-license-division-v-robot-aided-utahctapp-2005.