Fuchs v. Moore

• Decision Date: 23 February 1999
• Docket Number: No. 980301,980301
• Citation: 589 N.W.2d 902
• Parties: Kevin Lee FUCHS, Petitioner and Appellee, v. Marshall MOORE, Director, North Dakota Department of Transportation, Respondent and Appellant. Civil
• Court: North Dakota Supreme Court

Page 902

589 N.W.2d 902

1999 ND 27

Kevin Lee FUCHS, Petitioner and Appellee, v. Marshall MOORE, Director, North Dakota Department of Transportation, Respondent and Appellant.

Civil No. 980301

Supreme Court of North Dakota.

Feb. 23, 1999.

Thomas K. Schoppert, of Schoppert Law Firm, Minot, ND, for petitioner and appellee.

Candace Ann Prigge, Assistant Attorney General, Bismarck, ND, for respondent and appellant.

NEUMANN, Justice.

¶1. The Department of Transportation appealed from a judgment reversing the Department's 91-day suspension of Kevin Lee Fuchs's driving privileges for driving with an alcohol concentration of at least ten one-hundredths of one percent. We hold the dismissal of license revocation proceedings for Fuchs's refusal to take a chemical test did not constitute administrative res judicata for these proceedings to suspend Fuchs's license for driving in violation of N.D.C.C. § 39-08-01. We, therefore, reverse the judgment and remand with instructions the trial court reinstate the Department's suspension.

¶2. On December 6, 1997, Highway Patrol Officer Bruce Klein stopped Fuchs, whom he had observed driving over the center line and down the middle of the roadway. After administering field sobriety tests, Officer Klein arrested Fuchs for driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor. Following the arrest, Officer Klein asked Fuchs to provide a urine sample. Fuchs refused. However, after talking with an attorney, Fuchs agreed to provide a urine sample. Fuchs only provided "a couple of dribbles" in the urine cup, which Officer Klein thought would be insufficient to obtain valid test results. He, nevertheless, forwarded the sample to the State Toxicologist, but also submitted a report to the Department, under N.D.C.C. § 39-20-04, requesting revocation of Fuchs's driving privileges for refusing to submit to a chemical test.

¶3. Fuchs requested an administrative hearing, and one was scheduled for December 30, 1997. The day before the scheduled hearing, Fuchs and the State Toxicologist notified the Department's hearing officer by telephone that valid test results had been obtained from Fuchs's urine sample. The hearing officer canceled the hearing and summarily dismissed the revocation proceedings for Fuchs's refusal to submit to a chemical test.

¶4. Following the dismissal, Officer Klein notified Fuchs and issued a report to the Department, under N.D.C.C. § 39-20-03.1, requesting suspension of Fuchs's driving privileges for driving with an alcohol concentration of at least ten one-hundredths of one percent in violation of N.D.C.C. § 39-08-01. Fuchs requested an administrative hearing, which was held on April 15, 1998. The hearing officer concluded Fuchs had operated his vehicle with an alcohol concentration in violation of the statute, and the Department suspended Fuchs's driving privileges for a period of 91 days. Fuchs appealed to the district court.

¶5. The district court concluded the summary dismissal of the revocation proceedings for Fuchs's refusal to submit to a chemical test constituted administrative res judicata, barring the suspension proceedings for Fuchs driving his vehicle in violation of N.D.C.C. § 39-08-01. The court entered a judgment reversing, on res judicata principles, the Department's suspension of Fuchs's driving privileges. The Department appealed.

¶6. On appeal the Department contends the district court erred in applying res judicata and reversing the suspension of Fuchs's driving privileges. Administrative res judicata is simply the judicial doctrine of res judicata applied to an administrative proceeding to prevent collateral attacks on administrative agency decisions and to protect successful parties from duplicative proceedings. Lamplighter v. State ex rel. Heitkamp, 510 N.W.2d 585, 591 (N.D.1994). Under the doctrine of administrative res judicata an agency order issued after a formal adjudicative proceeding ordinarily bars the agency from later raising issues in new proceedings which could have been resolved in the prior formal adjudicative proceeding that had become final. See Cridland v. North Dakota Workers Compensation Bureau, 1997 ND 223, p 22, 571 N.W.2d 351. Application of the doctrine is especially appropriate to bar new proceedings when an agency has conducted a trial-type hearing, made findings, and applied the law. See McCarty v. North Dakota Workers Compensation Bureau, 1998 ND 9, p 14, 574 N.W.2d 556. The applicability of res judicata is a question of law. McCarty, 1998 ND at p 12, 574 N.W.2d 556.

¶7. The scheduled hearing to determine if Fuchs's driving privileges should be revoked for his failure to submit to a chemical test was never held. When the hearing officer learned by telephone the State Toxicologist had obtained test results from Fuchs's sample, he canceled the hearing and dismissed the revocation proceedings based upon Fuchs's alleged refusal to take a chemical test. Thereafter, proceedings were brought to suspend Fuchs's driving privileges for driving with an alcohol concentration in violation...