Jeffcoat v. State

• Citation: 639 P.2d 308
• Decision Date: 07 January 1982
• Docket Number: No. 5274,5274
• Parties: Samuel J. JEFFCOAT, Appellant, v. STATE of Alaska, Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Alaska

Page 308

639 P.2d 308

Samuel J. JEFFCOAT, Appellant, v. STATE of Alaska, Appellee.

No. 5274.

Court of Appeals of Alaska.

Jan. 7, 1982.

Thomas C. L. Roberts, Whiting & Rosie, Fairbanks, for appellant.

John A. Scukanec, Asst. Atty. Gen., Office of Special Prosecutions and Appeals, Anchorage, and Wilson L. Condon, Atty. Gen., Juneau, for appellee.

OPINION

Before BRYNER, C. J., and COATS and SINGLETON, JJ.

BRYNER, Chief Judge.

On August 8, 1979, Samuel Jeffcoat was arrested by a Fairbanks City Police Officer and charged with driving while his driver's license was suspended, in violation of AS 28.15.291(a). Jeffcoat's license had been suspended for one month effective July 31, 1979, by action of the Alaska Department of Public Safety. The suspension was mandatory under AS 28.15.251 because Jeffcoat had accumulated fourteen points for traffic violations within a twelve-month period.

On June 29, 1979, the Department of Public Safety mailed Jeffcoat a notice of his forthcoming license suspension pursuant to AS 28.05.121. This notice was sent by certified mail, return receipt requested. The notice was addressed to Jeffcoat at 528 Fifth Avenue, Fairbanks, Alaska 99701, which was his address listed in the records of the Department. Neither Jeffcoat nor the state dispute that this address, apparently Jeffcoat's office, was the proper address to which the notice should have been mailed.

The first attempt to deliver the certified letter occurred on July 2, 1979. Jeffcoat was absent, but a notice was left at his delivery address advising him that he could claim the certified letter at the post office. A second attempt to deliver the letter occurred on July 11, 1979. Once again, Jeffcoat was absent and a notice to claim the letter was left at his address. The certified letter was subsequently returned unclaimed to the Department of Public Safety by the post office on July 20, 1979, and it was received by the Department on July 24, 1979.

The parties have stipulated that, except for two occasions, Jeffcoat was out of the State of Alaska during this entire period of time. Jeffcoat was in Fairbanks on July 13th and again on July 20, 1979; however, while in Fairbanks, he did not pick up any of his mail, including the certified letter from the Department of Public Safety.

On October 30, 1979, Jeffcoat entered a plea of nolo contendere to the charge of driving with a suspended license and specifically reserved the right to appeal ¹ on the issue of the constitutionality of AS 28.05. 121. He had previously moved for dismissal of his charges, arguing that AS 28.05.121 was unconstitutional insofar as it purported to permit suspension of an operator's license without actual notice to the person whose license was suspended; this motion had been denied. District Court Judge Hugh Connelly accepted Jeffcoat's plea, entered a Judgment of Conviction, and sentenced him to ten-days' imprisonment. The ten day jail sentence was mandatory under AS 28.15.291(a). Jeffcoat appealed his conviction to the superior court, and on March 18, 1980, after oral argument, the superior court affirmed the conviction. Jeffcoat now appeals the superior court's ruling affirming the district court's Judgment of Conviction.

AS 28.05.121 reads as follows:

Giving of notice. When the department is authorized or required to give notice under this title or regulations adopted under this title, unless a different method of giving notice is otherwise expressly provided, notice shall be given by a qualified person, either by personal delivery to the person to be notified or by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, addressed to the person at his address as shown in the records of the department. The giving of notice by mail is considered complete upon the return of the receipt or upon return of the notice as undeliverable, refused, or unclaimed. Proof of the giving of notice in either manner may be made by the affidavit of the person giving the notice by personal delivery or by mail, naming the person to whom the notice was given and specifying the time, place, and manner of giving the notice. (Emphasis added.)

As he did below, Jeffcoat attacks that portion of the statute which provides that notice will be regarded as given when a certified letter of notice is returned unclaimed, refused, or in some way designated as undeliverable. He argues that this section violates the due process clauses of the Alaska ² and United States ³ Constitutions, since it does not require actual notice of the suspension of a person's driver's license. Jeffcoat maintains this permits the conviction of a person on a charge of driving while his or her license is suspended or revoked when that person had no knowledge that the license was suspended or revoked. Thus he contends that AS 28.05.121 in effect converts AS 28.15.291(a), which prohibits driving with a suspended license, into a strict liability statute, in which the state is not required to prove mens rea, or knowledge of the wrongfulness of the challenged conduct.

Jeffcoat specifically asserts that the statute is constitutionally infirm under the due process standards detailed in Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 334-35, 96 S.Ct. 893, 902-03, 47 L.Ed.2d 18, 33 (1976). Alternatively, Jeffcoat argues that, even if this court upholds the constitutionality of AS 28.05.121, it must still find that the application of that statute to his particular situation resulted in a deprivation of his liberty without due process of law. We disagree with both arguments.

Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank and Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306, 70 S.Ct. 652, 94 L.Ed. 865 (1950), stated that while the requirements of due process will vary from one context to another, the process must be "appropriate to the nature of the case ...," and "reasonably calculated, under all the circumstances, to apprise interested parties of the pendency of the action and afford them an opportunity to present their objections." 339 U.S. at 313, 70 S.Ct. at 656, 94 L.Ed. at 873. Later, in Mathews, the Supreme Court formulated three factors to be considered in determining what process is due:

(O)ur prior decisions indicate that identification of the specific dictates of due process generally requires consideration of three distinct factors: first, the private interest that will be affected by the official action; second, the risk of an erroneous deprivation of such interest through the procedures used, and the probable value, if any, of additional or substitute procedural safeguards; and, finally, the Government's interest, including the function involved and the fiscal and administrative burdens that the additional or substitute procedural requirements would entail.

Mathews, 424 U.S. at 334-35, 96 S.Ct. at 902-03, 47 L.Ed. at 33 (citation omitted).

Jeffcoat and the state agree that the Mathews test is the proper analysis, but disagree over the results of its application to the instant case. Jeffcoat argues that the private interest at stake here is considerable; he asserts that his interest is not only that of continuing the privilege of driving on Alaska roads, but is also clearly a penal interest because of the mandatory ten-day imprisonment provisions of AS 28.15.291(a), which reads, in relevant part:

Driving while license canceled, suspended, revoked or in violation of limitation. (a) No person may drive a motor vehicle on a highway or vehicular way or area in this state at a time when his driver's license, or privilege to drive in this state if he is licensed in another jurisdiction, has been canceled, suspended or revoked, or when he is driving in violation of a limitation placed upon his license, even when he is driving under a license issued in another jurisdiction. Upon conviction of a violation of this section, the court shall impose a minimum sentence of imprisonment of not less than 10 days. (Emphasis added.)

Jeffcoat urges that the combination of the penal interest present because of the mandatory ten-day imprisonment and the threatened loss of a driver's license creates a need for greater attention to the private interest than would otherwise be the case.

The next factor under the Mathews test is the risk of an erroneous deprivation of the individual's interest given the procedures employed. Jeffcoat claims that only actual notice is sufficient to prevent erroneous deprivation, because without such notice an opportunity to challenge the action might be lost. The state replies that AS 28.05.121 is reasonably calculated to result in receipt of actual notice, relying on the finding in Mackey v. Montrym, 443 U.S. 1, 13, 99 S.Ct. 2612, 2618, 61 L.Ed.2d 321, 331 (1979) that:

(T)he Due Process Clause has never been construed to require that the procedures used to guard against an erroneous deprivation of a protectible 'property' or 'liberty' interest be so comprehensive as to preclude any possibility of error. The Due Process Clause simply does not mandate that all governmental decision-making comply with standards that assure perfect, error-free determinations.

Jeffcoat admits that the requirement of actual notice as a replacement for the provisions of present AS 28.05.121 might increase the state's administrative and fiscal burdens, which must be considered as part of the state's interest in the Mathews balancing test, but he maintains that these possible changes are not so great as to outweigh his private interest.

Implicit in this argument is the assumption that AS 28.05.121 precluded Jeffcoat from asserting as a defense at his district court trial on the driving while license suspended charge the reasonableness of his failure to receive actual notice of his license suspension. The appellant places heavy emphasis upon the mandatory imprisonment provision of AS 28.15.291(a), and argues that the importance of the liberty interest involved is augmented by mandatory imprisonment for behavior that an individual might have no reason to believe was...