Privette v. State

• Decision Date: 09 October 1990
• Docket Number: No. 46,46
• Citation: 580 A.2d 188,320 Md. 738
• Parties: William Harrison PRIVETTE v. STATE of Maryland. Sept. Term 1989.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 738

320 Md. 738

580 A.2d 188

William Harrison PRIVETTE v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 46 Sept. Term 1989.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Oct. 9, 1990.

Sherrie B. Glasser, Asst. Public Defender (Alan H. Murrell, Public Defender, both on brief) Baltimore, for appellant.

Sarah E. Page, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen., both on brief) Baltimore, for appellee.

Argued before MURPHY, C.J., and ELDRIDGE, COLE, RODOWSKY, McAULIFFE, ADKINS ^* and BLACKWELL, ^** JJ.

COLE, Judge.

We are requested to answer three questions in this case: (1) whether a circuit court has original jurisdiction to try a defendant on a charge of driving without insurance; (2) whether the trial court erred in preventing the defendant from arguing to the jury the Motor Vehicle Administration's (MVA) duties regarding uninsured motorists as set forth in Maryland Code (1987 Repl.Vol.), § 17-106 of the Transportation Article; and (3) whether the trial court improperly admitted hearsay testimony and thereby committed prejudicial error.

The facts are not complicated. William Harrison Privette, Petitioner, was involved in a fatal automobile accident on January 16, 1985. On April 30, 1985, Petitioner was charged by indictment in the Circuit Court for Harford County with manslaughter by motor vehicle, homicide by motor vehicle, homicide by motor vehicle while intoxicated, driving under the influence of alcohol, reckless driving, negligent driving, and failure to yield the right of way. As a result of the investigation after the accident, a copy of the title record of the vehicle was obtained from the MVA. It indicated that there was no insurance coverage on the vehicle Privette had been driving when the accident occurred. As a result of this fact, Privette was charged on September 11, 1985, by information, with driving without insurance in violation of Maryland Transp.Code Ann. § 17-107. On that same date, the State filed a motion to consolidate the two cases.

Both cases were called for trial on October 6, 1988 in the Circuit Court for Harford County (Waldron, J.). The court denied the motion to consolidate, and trial proceeded only on the indicted offenses. On January 3, 1989, trial began in the Circuit Court for Harford County (Whitfill, J.) on the charge of driving without insurance. It is from the judgment entered after this trial that this appeal was taken.

In the January 3rd trial, Privette filed a motion to dismiss, maintaining that driving without insurance is a misdemeanor over which the District Court has exclusive jurisdiction by statute. That motion was denied on the ground that the insurance charge arose out of the same circumstances as the manslaughter offense which was proceeding in circuit court. The trial court further determined that pursuant to Md.Code (1974, 1989 Repl.Vol.), Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, § 4-302(f), the District Court had been divested of jurisdiction. The trial court reasoned that because the jurisdiction of the circuit court had been invoked regarding some of the charges arising from the accident, all charges arising from that accident, including those which would otherwise be within the exclusive jurisdiction of the District Court, were within the jurisdiction of the circuit court.

After all the evidence had been received, the trial court refused to give a jury instruction requested by Privette dealing with the MVA's duties once it receives notification of a termination or lapse of insurance coverage. Privette objected to the denial of this instruction. Subsequently, he attempted to address these same statutory duties during closing argument. The State objected, and at a bench conference the judge refused to allow Privette to argue the statute to the jury.

He was found guilty of driving without insurance and was sentenced to one year with all but six months suspended. He appealed to the Court of Special Appeals, and we granted certiorari on our own motion before argument in that court.

I

Privette contends that the insurance charge is wholly unrelated to the accident which gave rise to the other charges. According to Privette, the only nexus between the insurance charge and the manslaughter by vehicle charge was the coincidental occurrence of the collision. He maintains that because there was no causal relationship between driving without insurance and the accident, the insurance charge did not arise out of the same circumstances which generated the manslaughter charge. Privette concludes that only the common fact of the operation of the automobile links the two charges.

The State relies on § 4-302 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article to argue that the District Court was divested of jurisdiction over the insurance charge when the other charges stemming from the accident were filed in circuit court. In pertinent part, § 4-302 provides (d) Concurrent jurisdiction cases.--The jurisdiction of the District Court is concurrent with that of the circuit court in a criminal case:

(1) In which the penalty may be confinement for three years or more or a fine of $2,500 or more; or

* * * * * *

(e) Jury Trial.--

(1) The District Court is deprived of jurisdiction if a defendant is entitled to and demands a jury trial at any time prior to trial in the District Court.

* * * * * *

(f) Several Offenses.--(1) ... the District Court does not have jurisdiction of an offense otherwise within the District Court's jurisdiction if a person is charged:

* * * * * *

(ii) In the circuit court with an offense arising out of the same circumstances and within the concurrent jurisdictions of the District Court and the circuit court described under subsection (d) of this section.

(emphasis added).

At the time of the accident, vehicular manslaughter was a misdemeanor punishable by not more than five years or a fine of not more than $1,000.00, or both. Md.Code (1987 Repl.Vol.), Art. 27, § 388. ¹ Homicide by motor vehicle while intoxicated carried a penalty of imprisonment for not more than three years or a fine of not more than $1,000.00, or both. Art. 27, § 388A. ² Based on these potential sentences, both charges were within the concurrent jurisdiction of the District Court and the circuit court under § 4-302(d)(1).

The State argues that once charges were filed in the circuit court, all other offenses arising from the accident were properly before the circuit court. This includes the offense of driving without insurance, which is otherwise within the exclusive jurisdiction of the District Court. The State points out that Privette's driving of an uninsured vehicle during the accident created the offense, not just simply being uninsured. There had been no charge for driving an uninsured vehicle at any other time. The State maintains that the fact that the insurance charge was not filed until five months after the other charges should be of no consequence. According to the State, the controlling factor is whether the charges arose from the same circumstances, not whether the charges were all filed at the same time.

The appellate courts of this state have reviewed a number of cases in which it was decided that the District Court had been properly divested of exclusive jurisdiction pursuant to § 4-302. In most of those cases, the divestiture was effected by a timely prayer for a jury trial where all of the offenses arose out of the same circumstances. See § 4-302(e). See also State v. Huebner, 305 Md. 601, 505 A.2d 1331 (1986); Hart v. State, 51 Md.App. 341, 443 A.2d 635 (1982); Howard v. State, 32 Md.App. 75, 359 A.2d 568 (1976). There being no prayer for a jury trial involved in this case, the basic issue is whether the uninsured vehicle charge "arose from the same circumstances" as the vehicular manslaughter charge and is thereby governed by § 4-302(f)(1)(ii).

As we have stated on numerous occasions, the cardinal rule of statutory interpretation is to ascertain and effectuate the legislative intention. Jones v. State, 311 Md. 398, 405, 535 A.2d 471 (1988); In re Arnold M., 298 Md. 515, 520, 471 A.2d 313 (1984). The language of the statute itself is the primary source of this intent; and the words used are to be given "their ordinary and popularly understood meaning, absent a manifest contrary legislative intention." In re Arnold M., 298 Md. at 520, 471 A.2d 313. See also Kaczorowski v. City of Baltimore, 309 Md. 505, 514, 515, 525 A.2d 628 (1987). Stated another way, where the language of the statute is free from ambiguity, courts may not disregard the natural import of the words used in order to extend or limit its meaning. Id. at 521, 471 A.2d 313.

Although the phrase "same circumstances" is not defined in the statute, it is a familiar phrase which is used in various contexts. The paucity of cases defining the subject of this phrase--"circumstances"--is instructive. Generally, the word "circumstances" is defined as all the attendant or accompanying facts, events or conditions which bear upon, stand around or about another fact, event or condition. See e.g., State of Maryland v. United States, 165 F.2d 869, 871 (4th Cir.1947); Quinn v. Streeter, 24 N.Y.S.2d 916, 920, 175 Misc. 932 (1941); Pope v. Reading Co., 304 Pa. 326, 333, 156 A. 106, 109 (1931); see also Black's Law Dictionary 220 (5th ed. 1979). Accordingly, under § 4-302, once a person is charged in the circuit court, the District Court is divested of jurisdiction over all offenses arising out of the same accompanying facts. We do not believe the meaning of this phrase could be any plainer.

It seems to us that whether two or more offenses arise out of the same circumstances depends on no more than a showing that the offenses spring from the same attendant or surrounding facts, events or conditions. The phrase "same circumstances" does not lend itself to a more precise definition. Thus, we specifically reject the Petitioner's contention that our determination should be based on the causal relationship between the offenses.

I...