Hughes v. Department of Public Safety

• Decision Date: 25 March 1955
• Docket Number: No. 3967,3967
• Parties: Mavis HUGHES, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY, State of Louisiana, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

Page 129

79 So.2d 129

Mavis HUGHES, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY, State of Louisiana, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 3967.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

March 25, 1955.

C. Wayne Hays, Baton Rouge, for appellant.

Erlo J. Durbin, Denham Springs, for appellee.

TATE, Judge.

In this case we are called upon to decide for the first time the power of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety to suspend an operator's driver's license and an owner's vehicle registration certificate under the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act, Act No. 52 of 1952, LSA-R.S. 32:851 et seq.; and the grounds of judicial review of such suspension.

A devolutive appeal by the Department of Public Safety is now before us from a judgment enjoining it from suspending plaintiff Mavis Hughes' driver's license and also her vehicle registration certificate under the provisions of said Act. Previously, the Department had applied for writs on the failure of the trial court to allow a suspensive appeal and we held (which ruling we affirm) that the Department is allowed only a devolutive appeal, when to permit a suspensive appeal would nullify the judgment of the trial court and its stay powers under the Act, Hughes v. Department of Public Safety, La.App., 70 So.2d 597.

In response to the social problem posed by uncompensated victims of financially irresponsible motorists, all forty-eight States have passed either compulsory insurance or financial responsibility acts. Forty-two States have financial responsibility acts similar to ours, LSA-R.S. 32:851 et seq., requiring the operator or owner of a vehicle involved in an accident to post security (if he has no liability insurance or equivalent in force at the time of the accident) to pay resultant damages if subsequently cast therefor; or, on failure to post same, to undergo suspension of his operator's driver's license and/or owner's vehicle registration. See Comment, 'Compensation for Motor Vehicle Accident Victims: The Louisiana Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act', 27 Tulane Law Review 341. The constitutionality of such Acts and of such license suspension provisions has been upheld without exception, see Reitz v. Mealey, Commissioner, 314 U.S. 33, 62 S.Ct. 24, 86 L.Ed. 21; Hadden v. Aitken, Director, 156 Neb. 215, 55 N.W.2d 620, 35 A.L.R.2d 1003, Annotation, 'Validity of Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Acts', 35 A.L.R.2d 1011, particularly pages 1021-1025, Rosenblum v. Griffin, 89 N.H. 314, 197 A. 701, 115 A.L.R. 1367. A license to operate a vehicle upon the highways of the State is a privilege and not a property right, although the State may not deny this privilege to any of its citizens arbitrarily or capriciously. Such financial responsibility acts are sustained under the police power of the States to provide some remedy for the uncompensated victims of automobile accidents and thus to somewhat alleviate the social problem thereby resulting in this motorized age.

The present proceedings were instituted when (as a result of an accident of July 29th, 1953, involving Miss Hughes as operator and owner of a car upon which no liability insurance was in force at the time of the accident) the Department of Public Safety under LSA-R.S. 32:872, subd. C, by order dated October 15th, 1953, suspended Miss Hughes' driver's license and automobile registration plates as of October 30, 1953, if she failed before this latter date to furnish bond or authorized substitute in the amount of $998.59 (the amount of the property damage to the four other cars involved in the accident); this procedure being authorized by LSA-R.S. 32:872, subd. B. Petitioner's suit was filed on October 23, 1953, seeking review of this order, under LSA-R.S. 32:852, subd. B, and within the 30 days permitted therein, on the grounds that the district court had discretion 'to modify, affirm, or reverse' LSA-R.S. 32:852, subd. B, the Department's order because plaintiff Hughes needed the car to earn her livelihood and was financially unable to furnish security, and because she allegedly was not negligent in operation of her vehicle in the accident in question. Without written reasons, the court granted judgment in favor of plaintiff, enjoining the Department from suspending the driver's license and automobile registration.

The applicable provisions of the Act, in which the Department of Public Safety is referred to as 'the commissioner', are:

Section 5, subd. B, LAS-R.S. 32:872, subd. B, provides:

'The commissioners shall, within sixty days after the receipt of such report of a motor vehicle accident, suspend the license of each operator and all registrations of each owner of a motor vehicle in any manner involved in such accident, * * *.' (Italics ours.)

Subsection C thereof, LSA-R.S. 32:872, subd. C provides that license and registration suspension would not apply:

'(1) To such operator or owner if such owner had in effect at the time of such accident an automobile liability policy with respect to the motor vehicle involved in such accidents;

'(2) To such operator, if not the owner of such motor vehicle, if there was in effect at the time of such accident an automobile liability policy or bond with respect to his operation of motor vehicles not owned by him;' (Italics ours).

The remaining portion of Subsection C provide substitutes for insurance and the policy limits acceptable.

Section 6, LSA-R.S. 32:873 provides:

'Further exceptions to requirements of security.

'The requirements as to security and suspension in [Section 5] R.S. 32:872 shall not apply

'(1) To the operator or the owner of a motor vehicle involved in an accident wherein no injury or damage was caused to the person or property of any one other than such operator or owner;

'(2) To the operator or the owner of a motor vehicle legally parked at the time of the accident;

'(3) To the owner of a motor vehicle if at the time of the accident the vehicle was being operated without his permission, express or implied, or was parked by a person who had been operating such motor vehicle without such permission; nor

'(4) If, prior to the date that the commissioner would otherwise suspend license and registration or non-resident's operating privilege under Section 5, there shall be filed with the commissioner evidence satisfactory to him that the person who would otherwise have to file security has been released from liability or been finally adjudicated not to be liable or has executed a duly acknowledged written agreement providing for the payment of an agreed amount in installments, with respect to all claims...