Com., Dept. of Public Safety v. Walker

• Decision Date: 23 June 1972
• Citation: 481 S.W.2d 681
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY, Appellant, v. John Leonard WALKER, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

Page 681

481 S.W.2d 681

COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY, Appellant, v. John Leonard WALKER, Appellee.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

June 23, 1972.

Mary Jo Arterberry, Department of Public Safety, Frankfort, for appellant.

J. Leonard Walker, Louisville, for appellee.

REED, Judge.

The Department of Public Safety revoked the driver's license of John Leonard Walker, Jr., for a period of 6 months. The revocation was entered under KRS 186.570 which relates to discretionary suspension of an operator's license 'with or without a hearing' and 'with or without receiving a record of conviction of that person of a crime' whenever the department has reason to believe that 'that person is an habitually reckless or negligent driver of a motor vehicle or has committed a serious violation of the motor vehicle laws.' The department's notice of revocation to Walker specified that its action was taken as a result of 'your numerous convictions of the traffic laws' and 'violation of probation-clinic.'

KRS 186.580(2) as it existed at the time the revocation order was issued granted the aggrieved driver the right to petition the quarterly court of the county in which he resided for relief. A later provision of the same statute also granted the right to either the aggrieved driver or the Department of Public Safety to appeal the decision of the quarterly court if dissatisfied.

Walker appealed the order of revocation to the Jefferson Quarterly Court. An evidentiary hearing was held but was not transcribed and does not appear in the record. The quarterly court set aside the order of revocation and the Department of Public Safety appealed to the Jefferson Circuit Court. Another evidentiary hearing was held and again was not transcribed. The evidentiary proceedings before the circuit court are not contained in the record. The circuit court, as did the quarterly court, found that the revocation was not sustainable and directed that it be set aside. The department thereupon appealed to this court.

The department argues that the scope of judicial review authorized by KRS 186.580(2) has been misconceived by prior decisions of this court and was also exceeded by the circuit court. The department also argues that the circuit court erred in allowing Walker to go behind the suspension order for violations of his probation agreement and explain the violations which precipitated the probationary status. The department's final contention advanced is that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the circuit court's ruling.

The department's argument that the cases of Commonwealth, Dept. of Public Safety v. Glasscock, Ky., 415 S.W.2d 106; Commonwealth, Dept. of Public Safety v. Palmisano, Ky., 444 S.W.2d 128, and Commonwealth, Dept. of Public Safety v. Bell, Ky., 453 S.W.2d 751, were all wrongly decided is supported by merely a rehash of the arguments made in those cases. We are not persuaded that they are unsound.

Walker received three traffic citations in Florida for speeding--one in the year 1966 and the other two in the year 1968. He did not plead guilty nor does the record disclose any trial of those actions, much less judgments of conviction. Bonds were posted in each instance which were ultimately estreated to the State of Florida. Under its point system, the department assessed a total of nine points against Walker for two of these traffic infractions. At that time Walker had accumulated three points for a traffic violation in Kentucky which totaled twelve points in all.

In April 1968 a representative of the department conferred with Walker and placed him on probation, at which time he agreed to attend a driver-improvement clinic. No address for the clinic was stated in the notice for his attendance and no specific time for holding the clinic was stated except that it was to be held in Frankfort in May 1968. When Walker failed to...