State v. Kuhlman

• Decision Date: 22 September 2006
• Docket Number: No. A06-568.,A06-568.
• Citation: 722 N.W.2d 1
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Appellant v. Daniel Alan KUHLMAN, Respondent.
• Court: Minnesota Court of Appeals

Page 1

722 N.W.2d 1

STATE of Minnesota, Appellant v. Daniel Alan KUHLMAN, Respondent.

No. A06-568.

Court of Appeals of Minnesota.

September 22, 2006.

Mike Hatch, Attorney General, St. Paul, MN; and Jay M. Heffern, Minneapolis City Attorney, Mary Ellen Heng, Assistant City Attorney, Minneapolis, MN, for appellant.

Howard Bass, Bass Law Firm, P.L.L.C., Burnsville, MN, for respondent.

Faison T. Sessoms Jr., Minneapolis, MN, for amicus curiae Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Considered and decided by LANSING, Presiding Judge; RANDALL, Judge; and WILLIS, Judge.

OPINION

LANSING, Judge.

In August 2005, a Minneapolis traffic camera recorded a vehicle failing to stop at a red light. Daniel Kuhlman, the respondent, owned the vehicle and was issued a citation under the city's photo-enforcement ordinance. The district court granted Kuhlman's motion to dismiss and the city appeals. The city also moves to strike information in the appendix of the amicus brief. We deny the motion to strike and affirm the district court's decision.

FACTS

In September 2004, the Minneapolis City Council enacted sections 474.620 to 474.670 of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances, providing for the automated enforcement of traffic signals at certain city intersections, through the use of cameras that capture images of vehicles violating traffic signals. Minneapolis, Minn., Code of Ordinances §§ 474.620-.670 (2004). The Minneapolis photo-enforcement system provides for the use of a camera, installed at the intersection, to produce photographic, video, or digital images of the back of the vehicle to obtain its registration-plate number. If the recorded image detects a violation of a traffic-control signal, a peace officer may issue a citation to the owner or lessee of the vehicle through the United States mail. The ordinance definition of what constitutes a traffic-signal violation is nearly identical to the definition in Minn. Stat. § 169.06, subd. 5 (Supp.2005).

In section 474.660, entitled "Evidence," the Minneapolis ordinance provides that the recorded image, together with proof of the vehicle's ownership or leased status, constitutes a rebuttable presumption that the owner or lessee was the person who committed the violation. The presumption may be rebutted by a sworn affidavit of non-ownership accompanied by the name and current address of the person operating the vehicle at the time of the violation or a copy of a police report showing the vehicle had been reported stolen before the violation. The "Evidence" section also provides that if the city finds that the person named in the citation was not operating the vehicle at the time of the violation, the city shall issue a citation through the United States mail to the person the affidavit identifies as the driver.

In August 2005, a camera at the intersection of West Broadway Avenue and Lyndale Avenue North in Minneapolis captured the image of a vehicle failing to stop at a red light. The vehicle was owned by Daniel Alan Kuhlman. The Minneapolis police department cited Kuhlman for failing to stop at a red light at an intersection, in violation of section 474.640. Kuhlman pleaded not guilty and subsequently moved to dismiss the charge, arguing that Minneapolis's "automated traffic law enforcement system ordinances are invalid because they conflict with state law, and are unconstitutional because they violate the due process rights of registered owners of motor vehicles."

The district court granted Kuhlman's motion to dismiss, concluding that the Minneapolis photo-enforcement ordinance is preempted by state laws regulating traffic. The district court found that the Minneapolis ordinance covers the same subject as the state traffic-signal statute, but the ordinance provides a lesser standard of due process protection to vehicle owners because the rebuttable presumption denies them the presumption of innocence: "[T]he owner is presumed to be the driver and must prove that someone else was driving in order to avoid a conviction." The district court also noted that, because the Hennepin County District Court must certify a record of the ordinance conviction to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, the conviction will appear on the owner's driving record and provide a basis for the enhancement of future driving violations. Minn. Stat §§ 169.95(b), 171.16, subd. 1 (2004). These convictions can trigger a driver's-license suspension under Minn. R. § 7409.2200 (2005). The city appeals from this determination.

ISSUES

I. Should this court grant the city's motion to strike the portions of the amicus brief that are not part of the district court record?

II. Does the Minnesota Highway Traffic Regulation Act preempt Minneapolis's photo-enforcement ordinance?

ANALYSIS

I

As a preliminary matter, the city has moved to strike two sections of the amicus brief appendix submitted by the Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. The city argues that the challenged portions are not part of the district court record. An amicus brief, however, may provide articles and information that are in the public domain and may have escaped a reviewing court's attention. Camacho v. Todd & Leiser Homes, 706 N.W.2d 49, 52 n. 3 (Minn.2005). Because the challenged sections of the appendix to the amicus brief are articles in the public domain, we deny the motion to strike.

II

This case is essentially a controversy over the division of power between individual cities and the state. This division of powers is governed by the preemption doctrine, which developed by analogy to federal Supremacy Clause cases. See Mangold Midwest Co. v. Village of Richfield, 274 Minn. 347, 356, 143 N.W.2d 813, 819 (1966). The question of whether a state statute preempts a city ordinance is a question of law, which we review de novo. Haumant v. Griffin, 699 N.W.2d 774, 777 (Minn.App. 2005), review denied (Minn. Aug. 24, 2005).

State statutes may preempt a local ordinance in three ways: (1) express preemption, when the state statute explicitly defines the extent to which its enactments preempt local regulation; (2) field preemption, when a city ordinance attempts to regulate conduct in a field that the state legislature intended the state law to exclusively occupy; and (3) conflict preemption, when a city ordinance permits what a state statute forbids or forbids what a statute permits. See English v. General Elec. Co., 496 U.S. 72, 78-80, 110 S.Ct. 2270, 2275, 110 L.Ed.2d 65 (1990) (discussing federal preemption doctrines); Mangold, 274 Minn. at 352, 356-57, 143 N.W.2d at 816, 819-820 (discussing state field and conflict preemption doctrines).

In this case, there is no question that Minneapolis has some power to enact traffic regulations. Minneapolis is a home-rule-charter city and its charter contains a general-welfare clause. Minneapolis, Minn., City Charter ch. 1, § 2 (2004). Regulation of traffic falls under this clause. State v. Sugarman, 126 Minn. 477, 479, 148 N.W. 466, 466-67 (1914). As a home-rule city, Minneapolis is expressly authorized to regulate parking, use traffic-control signals, regulate processions, designate one-way streets, identify through highways, and regulate certain uses of trucks. In addition, the Minnesota Highway Traffic Regulation Act permits cities to enact traffic ordinances that are not "in conflict" with the Act, so long as the penalty is the same as the penalty for the state offense. Minn.Stat. § 169.022 (2004).

The controversy centers, instead, on the degree to which Minneapolis's power is preempted or limited by the Minnesota Highway Traffic Regulation Act. Under Minnesota law, the Act's provisions "shall be applicable and uniform throughout this state . . . and no local authority shall enact or enforce any rule or regulation in conflict with the provisions of this chapter unless expressly authorized herein." Minn.Stat. § 169.022.

This statutory language expressly preempts local traffic regulations that are "in conflict" with the Minnesota Highway Traffic Regulation Act. In City of St. Paul v. Olson, the supreme court noted that the legislature "did not intend to preempt the field of highway traffic regulation entirely." 300 Minn. 455, 456, 220 N.W.2d 484, 485 (1974). Nonetheless, the language of section 169.022 substantially limits a city's power to enact traffic regulations. The Act restricts a city's power to enact traffic ordinances to "the limited local regulation the statute expressly permitted." Mangold, 274 Minn. at 359, 143 N.W.2d at 821 (discussing State v. Hoben, 256 Minn. 436, 98 N.W.2d 813 (Minn. 1959)). The extent of express preemption is a question of statutory interpretation. See Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 463 U.S. 85, 96, 103 S.Ct. 2890, 2899, 77 L.Ed.2d 490 (1983). Within this framework we address whether Minneapolis's photo-enforcement ordinance is "in conflict" under section 169.022.

In interpreting the phrase "in conflict," we first look to the text of the Minnesota Highway Traffic Regulation Act. Section 169.04 expressly authorizes a city to regulate "traffic by means of police officers or traffic-control signals." Minn.Stat. § 169.04(a)(2) (2004). But the terms "police officer" and "traffic control signal" are narrowly defined. Minn.Stat. § 169.01, subds. 27, 42 (2004). A "traffic control signal" is only a device "by which traffic is alternately directed to stop and permitted to proceed." Id., subd. 42. The language in this definition does not cover photo-enforcement, and we conclude that photo-enforcement is not expressly authorized. Instead our analysis is guided by two long-standing interpretations of section 169.022.

First, a local traffic ordinance is "in conflict" if the ordinance interferes with statewide uniformity by prohibiting conduct that is not prohibited in the rest of the state. In Duffy v. Martin, 265 Minn. 248, 255, 121 N.W.2d 343, 348 (1963), the supreme court held that a Minneapolis ordinance was "in conflict" within the...