State v. Blueback
Decision Date | 16 May 2018 |
Docket Number | A160091 |
Citation | 291 Or.App. 779,422 P.3d 385 |
Parties | STATE of Oregon, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Anthony Wayne BLUEBACK, Defendant-Appellant. |
Court | Oregon Court of Appeals |
Ernest G. Lannet, Chief Defender, Criminal Appellate Section, and Vanessa McDonald, Deputy Public Defender, Office of Public Defense Services, filed the brief for appellant.
Ellen F. Rosenblum, Attorney General, Benjamin Gutman, Solicitor General, and Jeff J. Payne, Assistant Attorney General, filed the brief for respondent.
Before DeHoog, Presiding Judge, and Aoyagi, Judge, and Haselton, Senior Judge.
Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for driving while suspended or revoked, ORS 811.182(4).1 He assigns error to the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence discovered after an officer pulled him over for failing to display a front license plate on his pickup truck, which the officer considered a violation of ORS 803.540. Defendant argues that the officer lacked probable cause to justify a traffic stop because, he contends, the failure to display a front license plate does not violate that statute or any other law. We conclude that ORS 803.540 required defendant to display a front license plate on his pickup truck and, accordingly, affirm.
The facts are few and undisputed. An officer observed defendant driving a pickup truck that displayed an Oregon license plate to the rear but that did not have a front license plate. The officer pulled defendant over, believing that defendant's failure to display a front license plate violated ORS 803.540.2 During the traffic stop, the officer discovered that defendant's driving privileges were suspended, and the state subsequently charged defendant with misdemeanor driving while suspended or revoked, ORS 811.182(4). Defendant moved to suppress the evidence obtained during the traffic stop, arguing that the officer lacked probable cause to stop him because, he contended, ORS 803.540 does not require vehicles to display front license plates. The trial court denied defendant's motion, after which he entered a conditional guilty plea and appealed, assigning error to the denial of his motion to suppress.
Under Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution, a police officer may not initiate a stop to investigate a suspected traffic violation unless the officer has probable cause to believe that a violation has occurred. State v. Husk , 288 Or. App. 737, 739, 407 P.3d 932 (2017), rev. den. , 362 Or. 665, 415 P.3d 583 (2018). Probable cause includes both a subjective and objective component: The officer must subjectively believe that a traffic violation has occurred, and that belief must be objectively reasonable. Id. " ‘[A]n officer's subjective belief that a traffic infraction occurred is objectively reasonable if, and only if, the facts as the officer perceived them actually satisfy the elements of a traffic infraction.’ " State v. Jones , 286 Or. App. 562, 564, 401 P.3d 271 (2017) (quoting State v. Tiffin , 202 Or. App. 199, 203-04, 121 P.3d 9 (2005) ).3
Defendant's appeal implicates only the objective component of probable cause. Thus, we must determine whether the trial court erred in concluding that defendant's failure to display a front license plate "actually satisf[ied] the elements of a traffic infraction." Id. We review that legal conclusion for errors of law. Husk , 288 Or. App. at 739, 407 P.3d 932.
Here, the officer believed that defendant had violated ORS 803.540, which provides, in part:
Defendant argues that failing to display a license plate on the front of a vehicle does not violate ORS 803.540 (1)(b), because that statute requires a driver to display both front and rear plates only "if two plates are required." And, in defendant's view, neither ORS 803.540(1)(b) nor any other statute "require[s]" two plates. Thus, defendant concludes, even though the statute would require him to display a front license plate if some source of law required drivers to display two plates, that condition is not met here. The state disagrees. It points to the text surrounding ORS 803.540 and argues that, when read together with ORS 803.540, those provisions require a person to display the number of plates issued to a vehicle. The state emphasizes ORS 803.525, which provides, in part:
The state reasons that, by directing the Department of Transportation to issue two plates for most vehicles, including defendant's pickup truck, ORS 803.525"require[s]" two plates, and defendant must therefore display both plates under ORS 803.540(1)(b).
The parties' dispute requires us to construe ORS 803.540(1)(b). In resolving that dispute, we seek to discern the legislature's intended meaning by examining the statute's text, context, and any pertinent legislative history. State v. Gaines , 346 Or. 160, 171-72, 206 P.3d 1042 (2009). Starting with the text of the statute, the term "require[ ]," especially when, as here, it appears in a legal context, suggests an affirmative, externally imposed obligation: "to demand as necessary or essential (as * * * in order to comply with or satisfy some regulation) : * * * enjoin, command, or authoritatively insist (that someone do something)." Webster's Third New Int'l Dictionary 1929 (unabridged ed. 2002); see Jenkins v. Board of Parole , 356 Or. 186, 194, 335 P.3d 828 (2014) ( ). That definition of "require" supports defendant's contention that one cannot violate ORS 803.540(1)(b) unless some source of law imposes a specific obligation to display two plates.
But, as we understand the state's argument, it does not dispute that, for ORS 803.540(1)(b) to apply, there must be an affirmative requirement that drivers display two plates; the state finds that requirement, however, in ORS 803.525 and in other related statutes. As set out above, ORS 803.525 establishes a general rule requiring that the Department of Transportation "issue two registration plates for every vehicle that is registered by the department." In turn, ORS 803.530 requires that "[r]egistration plates assigned to a vehicle *** remain with the vehicle to which the plates are assigned."4 Finally, ORS 803.540(1)(c) requires that "registration plates assigned to [a] vehicle" be displayed "in plain view and so as to be read easily by the public." Read together, those provisions (1) required the Department of Transportation to issue two plates for defendant's pickup truck; (2) required that the plates assigned to defendant's truck remain with his truck; and (3) required defendant to display both assigned plates. It follows, the state reasons, that the requirement that a particular vehicle be issued two plates under ORS 803.525 establishes a requirement that the vehicle's driver display two plates under ORS 803.540 (1)(b) —that is, the legislature necessarily intended for ORS 803.525 to control whether "two plates are required" under ORS 803.540(1)(b). We agree with the state.
In attributing that intent to the legislature, we are persuaded that it reflects the most logical reading of the plain text of the statutes at issue in their respective contexts.5 We find additional support for that reading in ORS 174.010.6 That is, if we can do so without "insert[ing] what has been omitted, or [omitting] what has been inserted," ORS 174.010 requires us to construe ORS 803.540 so as to give effect to all of its provisions. See ORS 174.010 (). And, because ORS 803.540 does not itself state when "two...
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...man was in the passenger seat. The car did not have a front license plate, a traffic violation under ORS 803.540. State v. Blueback , 291 Or. App. 779, 784, 422 P.3d 385 (2018). Oller initiated a traffic stop by pulling in front of the car so that his car faced the parked car. He got out of......
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...of Transportation ‘issue two registration plates for every vehicle that is registered by the department.’ " State v. Blueback , 291 Or. App. 779, 783, 422 P.3d 385 (2018). Thus, for purposes of ORS 803.540(1)(b), "two plates are required" for most vehicles, meaning that drivers typically mu......
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