R.L.I., In Interest of

• Decision Date: 29 March 1989
• Docket Number: No. 870289,870289
• Parties: In the Interest of R.L.I., a person under eighteen years.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

Page 1068

771 P.2d 1068

In the Interest of R.L.I., a person under eighteen years.

No. 870289.

Supreme Court of Utah.

March 29, 1989.

John L. Chidester, Heber City, for appellant.

R. Paul Van Dam, David B. Thompson, Salt Lake City, for appellee.

DURHAM, Justice:

This case comes to us on a writ of certiorari from the Utah Court of Appeals. R.L.I., a minor, was tried in juvenile court and found guilty of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant. He appealed the judgment of the juvenile court. On appeal, the Court of Appeals reversed the juvenile court's ruling on a motion to suppress evidence related to a blood test performed on R.L.I. but affirmed R.L.I.'s conviction. In the Interest of I., R.L., 739 P.2d 1123 (Utah Ct.App.1987) . We vacate the opinion of the Court of Appeals and reverse.

On May 12, 1985, R.L.I. was involved in a head-on collision while operating a motor vehicle near Heber City, Utah. A Utah highway patrol trooper and a Wasatch County deputy sheriff investigated the accident. The highway patrol trooper who observed R.L.I. at the accident scene concluded that R.L.I. was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident but did not place him under arrest.

R.L.I. was taken by ambulance from the scene of the accident to the Wasatch County Hospital, where a third officer requested the taking of a blood sample for alcohol analysis. The trooper at the hospital did not arrest R.L.I., nor did he explain to R.L.I. that a blood sample was being extracted for law enforcement purposes. R.L.I. was not informed that he could refuse to submit to the blood test, and the evidence establishes that he did not consent to the testing procedure.

At trial, R.L.I. moved to suppress evidence of the blood test results. Relying upon this Court's holding in State v. Cruz, 21 Utah 2d 406, 446 P.2d 307 (1968), R.L.I. argued that the test results were inadmissible. The juvenile court denied R.L.I.'s motion to suppress, finding that R.L.I. impliedly consented to the blood test.

On appeal, the Utah Court of Appeals reversed the juvenile court's ruling on the motion to suppress and excluded the blood test evidence as the product of an unconstitutional search and seizure. After reviewing the sufficiency of the other evidence, however, the Court of Appeals sustained R.L.I.'s conviction. The Court of Appeals correctly reversed the juvenile court's ruling on the motion to suppress, but unnecessarily relied on constitutional analysis to do so.

Utah Code Ann. § 41-6-44.10 (1988) grants peace officers the authority to obtain blood samples from drivers who operate motor vehicles while under the influence of intoxicants. Section 41-6-44.10(1)(a) provides:

A person operating a motor vehicle in this state is considered to have given his consent to a chemical test or tests of his breath, blood, or urine for the purpose of determining whether he was operating or in actual physical control of a motor vehicle while having a blood or breath alcohol content statutorily prohibited, or while under the influence of alcohol, any drug, or combination of alcohol and any drug under Section 41-6-44, if the test is or tests are administered at the direction of a peace officer having grounds to believe that person to have been operating or in actual physical control of a motor vehicle while having a blood or breath alcohol content statutorily prohibited, or while under the influence of alcohol, any drug, or combination of alcohol and any drug under Section 41-6-44.

Section 41-6-44.10(2)(a) provides in relevant part:

If the person has been placed under arrest, and has then been requested by a peace officer to submit to any one or more of the chemical tests under Subsection (1), and refuses to submit to the chemical test or any one or all of the tests requested, the person shall be warned by a peace officer requesting the test or tests that a refusal to submit to the test or tests can result in revocation of his license to operate a motor vehicle. Following this warning, unless the person immediately requests that the chemical test or tests as offered by a peace officer be administered, no test may be given.

Section 41-6-44.10(3) continues:

Any person who is dead, unconscious, or in any other condition rendering him incapable of refusal to submit to any chemical test or tests is considered to not have withdrawn the consent provided for in Subsection (1), and the test or tests may be administered whether the person has been arrested or not.

This Court interpreted the language of section 41-6-44.10 in State v. Cruz, 21 Utah 2d 406, 446 P.2d 307 (1968). In Cruz, the driver of an automobile involved in a serious accident (Cruz) was taken to a hospital for examination and treatment. At the hospital, Cruz was asked by investigating officers to submit to a blood test to determine the alcoholic content of his blood. Although Cruz refused to submit to the test, a blood sample was drawn and a blood alcohol analysis was performed. At trial, the results of the blood test were admitted into evidence, and Cruz was subsequently convicted of automobile homicide. Cruz appealed his conviction, arguing that the blood test results were erroneously admitted because "the sample of his blood...