Williams v. Commissioner of Public Safety

830 N.W.2d 442, 2013 WL 1501004
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedApril 15, 2013
DocketNos. A12-1548, A12-1576, A12-1578
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 830 N.W.2d 442 (Williams v. Commissioner of Public Safety) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams v. Commissioner of Public Safety, 830 N.W.2d 442, 2013 WL 1501004 (Mich. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

KIRK, Judge.

This is a consolidated appeal by appellant Minnesota Commissioner of Public Safety of the district courts’ rescissions of the revocations of the driver’s licenses of respondents Christopher John Williams, Mark Alan Gehrke, and Mary Jo Higgins under Minnesota’s implied consent law, Minn.Stat. §§ 169A.50-.53 (2012). The commissioner argues that there is no statutory or procedural due process basis for the district courts’ conclusions that respondents were entitled to a full seven days’ notice before their mailed notices of revocation became effective. We agree, and we reverse the rescissions of the revocations of respondents’ licenses.

FACTS

The facts are not in dispute and are functionally identical for each of the three respondents. Each respondent was arrested on suspicion of driving while [444]*444impaired (DWI). Each respondent submitted to a urine or blood test. Each subsequent analysis of the test samples indicated that each respondent was driving in violation of Minnesota’s implied consent law. Each respondent received a notice of revocation mailed by the commissioner with a mailing date marked on the letter. Each notice was postmarked one day after the mailing date indicated on the notice. For example, the commissioner sent Williams a notice of revocation with a mailing date of January 25, 2012. However, the envelope in which the notice was mailed was postmarked January 26, 2012.

Each notice of revocation sent by the commissioner provided a date that the revocation was to become effective. Each of those dates fell ten days after the mailing date of the notice, but nine days after the date postmarked on the envelope. Using Williams as an example again, his notice indicated that the revocation was to become effective February 4, 2012. Allowing for three days’ mailing time to elapse before Williams would be deemed to have received the notice as required under Minn.Stat. § 169A.52, subd. 6, the revocation thus became effective seven days after the mailing date printed on the notification letter. However because the notice was postmarked a day later, he received only six days’ notice before the revocation became effective.

Each respondent timely sought judicial review of the revocation in district court pursuant to Minn.Stat. § 169A.53, subd. 2(a). The respondents each argued that their procedural due process rights were violated because the commissioner’s notification, when measured from the postmark, failed to provide a full seven days of driving privileges between receipt of the notice and revocation of the license. Each district court concluded that the commissioner’s notices violated respondents’ rights to procedural due process and ordered the revocations rescinded.

The commissioner appealed each ruling and this court consolidated the appeals.

ISSUE

Were respondents’ procedural due process rights violated when they received six days’ notice before their license revocations became effective instead of seven days’ notice?

ANALYSIS

The commissioner argues that the district courts erred when they found that respondents’ procedural due process rights were violated when they received six days’ notice before their revocations became effective. Respondents contend that the denial of even one day of driving privileges to which they would otherwise be entitled if they had received immediate notice of revocation from a peace officer is an unconstitutional deprivation of their procedural due process rights.

The United States and Minnesota Constitutions provide that a person’s liberty will not be deprived by the government “without due process of law.” U.S. Const, amend. XIV, § 1; Minn. Const, art. I, § 7. “This constitutional question involves the application of law to undisputed facts. Accordingly, our review is de novo.” State v. Wiltgen, 737 N.W.2d 561, 566 (Minn.2007). Statutory interpretation is a question of law, which this court also reviews de novo. Johnson v. Comm’r of Pub. Safety, 756 N.W.2d 140, 143 (Minn.App.2008), review denied (Minn. Dec. 16, 2008).

A. There is no statutory requirement that a seven-day notice of revocation be provided to respondents.

We need only briefly note that there is no statutory basis for requiring the com[445]*445missioner to provide seven days’ notice to licensees receiving notice of revocation by mail.1 It is true that a licensee who refuses a peace officer’s demand to submit to a chemical test, or who submits to a test the results of which immediately indicate an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more, is subject to immediate revocation of his driver’s license and the issuance of a temporary, seven-day license by the peace officer. Minn.Stat. § 169A.52, subd. 7. But respondents were not facing immediate revocation. Instead, they submitted to fluid testing and waited weeks or months for a revocation notice to come in the mail from the commissioner. A notice of revocation mailed by the commissioner is deemed received three days after being mailed. Minn.Stat. § 169A.52, subd. 6. Unlike an immediate revocation, there is no statutory provision either for a temporary license or for the revocation to become effective seven days after receipt of the notice. Thus the only theory on which respondents proceed is their assertion of a procedural due process right to seven days of temporary driving privileges.

B. The abridgment of one day of driving privileges is a legally cognizable harm.

The commissioner contends that respondents lacked standing to bring a procedural due process claim because: (1) they did not suffer a legally cognizable harm, and (2) even if the loss of one day of driving privileges is a cognizable harm, respondents had weeks or months of time before receiving the revocation letter to prepare for the revocation. Respondents contend that the legally cognizable harm they suffered is not the revocation of their driving privileges but the premature revocation of their driving privileges, and that the denial of just one day of driving privileges is a deprivation of their due process rights.

“To have standing, a plaintiff must show a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy, and must allege specific, concrete facts showing she has been personally harmed.” Villars v. Provo, 440 N.W.2d 160, 162 (Minn.App.1989). “[T]here is no standing to raise a constitutional challenge absent a direct and personal harm resulting from the alleged denial of constitutional rights.” City of Minneapolis v. Wurtele, 291 N.W.2d 386, 393 (Minn.1980). Minnesota courts recognize that “[a] license to drive is a protected interest that cannot be deprived without procedural due process.” Riehm v. Comm’r of Pub. Safety, 745 N.W.2d 869, 877 (Minn.App.2008) (citing Bell v. Burson, 402 U.S. 535, 539, 91 S.Ct. 1586, 1589, 29 L.Ed.2d 90 (1971)), review denied (Minn. May 20, 2008).

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830 N.W.2d 442, 2013 WL 1501004, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-commissioner-of-public-safety-minnctapp-2013.