State ex rel. Cline v. Maxwell
| Decision Date | 08 April 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 21508,21508 |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE of West Virginia ex rel. Jane L. CLINE, Commissioner, West Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, Petitioner, v. Honorable Frank J. MAXWELL, Judge of the Circuit Court of Harrison County; Craig Swann; Dale R. Sinclair; Robert Kern; Jackie Thompson; Jon Davis; Tom Casey; Mike Skinner; Bruce Davis; Robert Closson; Debbie Cooper; Robert Moyer; Hobert Powers; Clifford Wilfong; Melvin Lantz; William Gordon; Joe Shuman; Doug Snider; and Frederick Bumgardner, Respondents. |
Syllabus by the Court
1. If an administrative revocation proceeding cannot be held and a decision rendered within six months because of delay caused by the West Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, the Department must return a licensee's operator's license before the expiration of the temporary driving permit. However, if the delay in the revocation proceedings is caused by the licensee, the burden of such delay remains with the licensee, who must apply for an extension of the temporary driving permit in order to continue to drive. After the licensee's operator's license is returned, the Department must follow its routine license procedures until an administrative decision is reached concerning the revocation.
2. When the West Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles continues a revocation hearing, the Department's notice must state the reasons for the continuance, identify who requested the continuance and provide a specific future hearing date.
3. Syllabus Point 2, Dolin v. Roberts, 173 W.Va. 443, 317 S.E.2d 802 (1984).
Darrell McGraw, Atty. Gen., Paul E. Jordan, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., Claude S. Smith, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., Charleston, for petitioner.
Jerald E. Jones, West and Jones, Clarksburg, for respondent Frederick Bumgardner.
James A. Matish, Clarksburg, for other individual respondents.
This case raises the question of what relief should be granted to licensees whose administrative license revocation hearings are excessively delayed by the West Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. The revocation hearings for the licensees, all of whom are accused of driving under the influence (DUI), were delayed in excess of six months. After the circuit court found that a six-month delay was a per se deprivation of due process, and ordered the Department to return of the licensees' operator's licenses and dismiss the administrative charges, the Department sought a writ of prohibition from this Court. Although we agree with the circuit court that after a six-month hearing delay, the licensees' regular operator's licenses should returned, we find that the circuit court erred in requiring the dismissal of the administrative charges pending against the licensees, and, therefore, we grant a writ of prohibition as moulded.
The following facts are typical of the licensees' cases. When Robert G. Closson was arrested on 7 December 1991 for DUI, his operator's license was confiscated and he was issued a thirty-day temporary driving permit. After the Department received the arresting officer's affidavit, the Department, on 19 December 1991, ordered a six-month suspension of Mr. Closson's license and advised him that he could request an administrative hearing "within ten (10) days after receipt of this ORDER." After Mr. Closson timely requested a hearing, the Department, by letter dated 13 January 1992, notified Mr. Closson that his hearing, scheduled for 21 January 1992, was continued on the Commissioner's motion. The Department's schedule/continuation letter provided neither a new hearing date nor any reasons for the delay. After the Department received Mr. Closson's request for a hearing, the Department sent him a temporary driving permit, effective for one hundred eighty days (6 months). After an eleven-month delay from his originally scheduled hearing, Mr. Closson petitioned the circuit court to require the Department to return his regular photo operator's license and to prohibit the Department from conducting the hearing.
A similar pattern occurred in the cases of the other seventeen licensees with the following differences: (1) eleven of the hearing schedule/continuation letters stated that the continuation was "[d]ue to circumstances beyond our [the Department's] control;" and (2) in several cases the licensees unsuccessfully requested the Department to dismiss the administrative charges. Although the delay between the DUI arrest and the 2 December 1992 circuit court hearing varied, each delay exceeded six months. 1 In addition because delay exceeded six months, the licensees allege that when several of their six-month temporary driving permits expired, the Department delayed in extending the temporary permits and they were without temporary driving permits. 2
Because of the Department's delay in conducting the hearings, the licensees petitioned the circuit court to require the Department to return their regular operator's licenses and prohibit the Department from any further administrative charges related to their DUI arrests. After a hearing on 2 December 1992, the circuit court granted the licensees' petitions because the "delay [in excess of six months] is unreasonable and such [is] a denial of due process and it's too late to even hold a hearing." The Department then petitioned this Court for a writ of prohibition to vacate the circuit court's order.
When a licensee is arrested for DUI, the regular operator's license is confiscated and a temporary permit is issued. If the licensee requests a hearing concerning his license revocation, the temporary permit is extended. W.Va.Code 17C-5A-2(a) [1992] (). 3 In the licensees' cases, the Department extended the temporary permits for one hundred eighty days (six months). When the temporary permits expired, the licensees, who had not been afforded hearings, sought extensions of their temporary permits. In some cases, the licensees sought permit extensions several times because the Department continued to delay their hearings. The licensees allege that although they promptly requested permit extensions, they lacked driving permits because the Department delayed. In addition to lacking temporary permits, the licensees allege that their lack of photo operator's licenses inconvenienced them because they could not cash payroll checks, purchase items with checks, apply for passports, rent videos, test drive cars, rent cars, and do other routine things that require a regular photo operator's license for identification.
The Commissioner acknowledges the delays in holding the DUI revocation hearings but maintains that the continuances are part of her docket management. Because of the numerous hearing requests, the Commissioner claims that it "is logistically impossible" to hold the hearings within twenty days as required by W.Va.Code 17C-5A-2(b) [1992]. 4 Because of the twenty-day requirement, "the Commissioner, out of necessity, sets a hearing date within twenty (20) days ... and then continues it on her own motion until an open hearing date becomes available." As of 30 September 1992, 111 Harrison County cases and 2,082 statewide cases were awaiting revocation hearings. Statewide, the Department has only ten active hearing examiners and the Harrison County hearing examiner conducts hearings in six counties. The Commissioner said that in October 1992, she "had attempted to set a total of 478 hearings" and during oral argument, said that another hearing examiner was assigned to Harrison County.
The Commissioner contends that the licensees were not deprived of their rights because they were still permitted to drive. According to the Commissioner, the temporary permits' expiration was caused "by either a delay by the Division of Motor Vehicles in sending out the renewals or a delay by the petitioners themselves in requesting them." The Commissioner said that "the situation is easily remedied," but suggested no remedy.
Although there is a tendency to belittle the complications caused by the lack of a photo operator's license, the inability to cash a check at the grocery store, rent a video, or test drive a car creates substantial expense and annoyance. When the hearing delay exceeds six months, it is the licensees who must act to extend their permits; it is the licensees who must deal with the Department's renewal delays; it is the licensees who cannot drive because their temporary permits expired; and, it is the licensees who must cope with Departmental red tape. 5
Due process requires a balance between the State's interest in law enforcement and the citizens' interest in being free from governmental harassment. In the present case, the license revocation procedures result from the State's interest in protecting its citizens from drunk drivers. The license revocation procedures, however, also protect the licensees' interests by requiring a hearing, if requested, before revocation and in the interim, the continuation of the privilege to drive. The license revocation procedures are designed to operate quickly with the hearing to "be held within twenty (20) days." W.Va.Code 17C-5A-2(b) [1992]. However, the heavy workload and the Department's understaffing have hobbled the system so that the hearing process takes months and the burden of the overworked system falls disproportionately on the licensees awaiting hearings.
The tragedy of drunk driving "cannot excuse the need for scrupulous adherence to our constitutional principles." Grady v. Corbin, 495 U.S. 508, 524, 110 S.Ct....
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