Harris v. State

• Decision Date: 23 November 2009
• Docket Number: No. S09G0870.,S09G0870.
• Parties: HARRIS v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

686 S.E.2d 777

286 Ga. 245

HARRIS v. The STATE.

No. S09G0870.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

November 23, 2009.

Michael R. McCarthy, Dalton, for appellant.

Kermit N. Mcmanus, Dist. Atty., John S. Helton, Asst. Dist. Atty., for appellee.

NAHMIAS, Justice.

We granted certiorari to decide whether the Court of Appeals erred in concluding that a riding lawnmower is a "motor vehicle" as that term is used in the statute punishing theft of a motor vehicle, OCGA § 16-8-12(a)(5)(A). See Harris v. State, 295 Ga.App. 727, 729-730, 673 S.E.2d 76 (2009). We hold that the Court of Appeals did err and that appellant's conviction for theft of a motor vehicle should be reversed and the case remanded for resentencing.

1. Franklin Lloyd Harris and two associates stole a Toro riding lawnmower worth more than $500 from outside a Home Depot in Dalton, Georgia. They loaded the lawnmower into the back of a van and drove it to Athens, Tennessee, where they sold it. Police later identified Harris as one of the thieves, and he was charged with and convicted by a jury of theft of a motor vehicle (Count 1) and felony theft by taking (Count 2). The trial court merged Count 2 into Count 1 and sentenced Harris, who had three prior felony convictions, to the statutory maximum of ten years in prison. See OCGA § 17-10-7.

At the close of the State's case at trial and in a motion for new trial, Harris argued that a riding lawnmower does not qualify as a "motor vehicle" under OCGA § 16-8-12(a)(5)(A), but the trial court rejected that argument. The Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions, also holding, among other things, that a riding lawnmower is a "motor vehicle" under that statute. Harris, 295 Ga. App. at 729-730, 673 S.E.2d 76. Only that issue is raised on certiorari before this Court.

2. OCGA §§ 16-8-2 through 16-8-9 set forth a series of theft-related criminal offenses including theft by taking, which prohibits "unlawfully tak[ing] ... any property of another with the intention of depriving him of the property," OCGA § 16-8-2. OCGA § 16-8-12 then establishes different punishment ranges for different varieties of theft. "If the property which was the subject of the theft exceeded $500.00 in value," the penalty is "imprisonment for not less than one nor more than ten years or, in the discretion of the trial judge, as for a misdemeanor." OCGA § 16-8-12(a)(1). This was the "felony theft by taking" offense of which Harris was convicted in Count 2.

OCGA § 16-8-12(a)(5) provides, in relevant part and with emphasis supplied, as follows:

(A) The provisions of paragraph (1) of this subsection notwithstanding, if the property which was the subject of the theft was a motor vehicle or was a motor vehicle part or component which exceeded $100.00 in value ..., by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than ten years or, in the discretion of the trial judge, as for a misdemeanor; provided, however, that any person who is convicted of a second or subsequent offense under this paragraph shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one year nor more than 20 years.

(B) Subsequent offenses committed under this paragraph, including those which may have been committed after prior felony convictions unrelated to this paragraph, shall be punished as provided in Code Section 17-10-7.

This is the "motor vehicle theft" of which Harris was convicted in Count 1. It applies only if the stolen property was a "motor vehicle" or a "motor vehicle part or component which exceeded $100.00 in value," although the penalty differs from that for felony theft by taking only for repeat violators or for thefts of motor vehicles or parts worth between $100 and $500.

3. In deciding whether the riding lawnmower that Harris stole is such a "motor vehicle," we begin with the ordinary meaning of that phrase, which is not a term of art or a technical term. See OCGA § 1-3-1(b) ("In all interpretations of statutes, the ordinary signification shall be applied to all words, except words of art or words connected with a particular trade or subject matter, which shall have the signification attached to them by experts in such trade or with reference to such subject matter."); Abdulkadir v. State, 279 Ga. 122, 123, 610 S.E.2d 50 (2005). A riding lawnmower capable of carrying a person is certainly a "vehicle," in the broad sense in which that single word is commonly used. See Webster's New World College Dictionary (2005 ed.) (Webster's Dictionary) (defining "vehicle" to include "any device or contrivance for carrying or conveying persons or objects, esp. over land or in space, as an automobile, bicycle, sled, or spacecraft"). A riding lawnmower is also a "vehicle with a motor," as are a huge range of mechanized vehicles from children's battery-powered mini-cars to mopeds, automobiles, trucks, trains, ships, and space shuttles. If an expansive phrase such as "a vehicle with a motor" were used in OCGA § 16-8-12(a)(5)(A), as occurs in a few other places in the Code, see, e.g., OCGA § 16-5-44.1(a)(2) ("`[m]otor vehicle' means any vehicle which is self-propelled"), this would be an easy case.

But the two-word phrase used in OCGA § 16-8-12(a)(5)(A)—"motor vehicle"—has a narrower connotation. A "motor vehicle" is commonly understood to mean a self-propelled vehicle with wheels that is designed to be used, or is ordinarily used, to transport people or property on roads. That is the dictionary definition of the term. See Webster's Dictionary (defining "motor vehicle" as "a vehicle on wheels, having its own motor and not running in rails or tracks, for use on streets or highways; esp., an automobile, truck, or bus" (emphasis supplied)). Not surprisingly, that is also how a large number of Georgia statutes specifically define the term, although the precise wording of the various iterations may differ.¹

By this ordinary meaning, a riding lawnmower is not a "motor vehicle." To be sure, a riding lawnmower is capable of transporting people or property and of driving on the street for short stretches, but that is not what the machine is designed for or how it is normally used—there being little grass to mow on streets, and there being faster and less noisy ways of moving people and property around. The parties have identified only one other court that has considered whether a riding lawnmower qualifies as a "motor vehicle" in the theft context, and that court reached the same conclusion. In Fainter v. State, 174 S.W.3d 718 (Mo.App.2005), the Missouri Court of Appeals reversed a conviction for stealing a "motor vehicle" based upon the theft of a riding lawnmower. The court held that, in the absence of a statutory definition to the contrary, "the distinct identity of a motor vehicle is its primary designed function to transport persons and things," and "[a]lthough a riding lawn mower is designed to transport a person, its primary function is to cut grass." Id. at 721 (emphasis in original).

4. Looking beyond the specific provision at issue to the statutory scheme as a whole only confirms this interpretation. See Higdon v. City of Senoia, 273 Ga. 83, 86, 538 S.E.2d 39 (2000) ("All statutes are presumed to be enacted with full knowledge of existing law and their meaning and effect is to be determined with reference to the constitution as well as other statutes and decisions of the courts."). The General Assembly did not specifically define the term "motor vehicle" in the theft article or the criminal title of the Georgia Code or in the few general definitions in OCGA § 1-3-3. The term "motor vehicle" is used hundreds of times in many contexts throughout the Code, often without definition; where a specific definition is provided, as noted previously, it usually, although not invariably, corresponds to the term's ordinary meaning.

The entire Title 40 of the Code is labeled "Motor Vehicles and Traffic," and it includes at its outset a set of detailed definitions for many vehicle-related terms. See OCGA § 40-1-1. Although those definitions are introduced with the phrase "[a]s used in this title," they are the formulations to which both parties direct our attention, to which the Court of Appeals has cited in interpreting the theft article, see Harris, 295 Ga.App. at 729-730, 673 S.E.2d 76 (collecting cases), and to which some sections of the Criminal Code that use the term "motor vehicle" expressly refer for a definition, see, e.g., OCGA §§ 16-6-13.2 (provision on forfeiture of motor vehicles used in pimping and pandering, defining "`[m]otor vehicle' or `vehicle'" as "any motor vehicle as defined in Code Section 40-1-1"); 16-9-70 (same, in provision on criminal use of an article with an altered identification mark). It is therefore worth some analysis of the definitions in Title 40.

Reflecting the word's ordinary meaning, Title 40 defines "vehicle" very broadly, to mean "every device in, upon, or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, excepting devices used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks." OCGA § 40-1-1(75) (emphasis supplied). Although Harris argues to the contrary, a riding lawnmower is a "vehicle" by this definition, as most people have at some time seen a riding lawnmower transporting a person upon a highway, if only to get the device around a barrier or from one side of the street to another. See Simpson v. Reed, 186 Ga.App. 297, 297, 367 S.E.2d 563 (1988) (negligence case involving a person struck by a car "as he was crossing a rural highway on a riding lawnmower"). Title 40 then appears to define "[m]otor vehicle" broadly, to mean "every vehicle which is self-propelled other than an electric personal assistive mobility device (EPAMD)." OCGA § 40-1-1(33). Reading that provision in isolation, as the State urges us to do, a riding lawnmower would be a "motor vehicle," as it is a "vehicle which is self-propelled" (and is not an EPAMD), or, to use the similar phrase discussed previously, it is a "vehicle with a motor."

However, if we...