State v. Schreiber

• Decision Date: 11 February 1991
• Citation: 585 A.2d 945,122 N.J. 579
• Parties: STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Linda A. SCHREIBER, Defendant-Respondent.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

Page 579

122 N.J. 579

585 A.2d 945

STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Linda A. SCHREIBER, Defendant-Respondent.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Argued Nov. 5, 1990.

Decided Feb. 11, 1991.

Boris Moczula, Deputy Atty. Gen., for plaintiff-appellant (Robert J. Del Tufo, Atty. Gen., attorney).

Thomas M. Russo, III, for defendant-respondent (Voorhees, Bennett & Wherry, attorneys, Pennington).

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

GARIBALDI, J.

The narrow issue in this appeal is whether the patient-physician privilege as enacted at N.J.S.A. 2A:84A-22.2 precludes the admission into evidence, at defendant's trial for driving while under the influence of alcohol, of defendant's blood test, which was voluntarily disclosed to the police by an emergency-room physician. That ultimate question, whether or not the doctor's revelations violated the patient-physician privilege, depends on our answer to the penultimate question of whether defendant's violation of the Motor Vehicles Act, more particularly N.J.S.A. 39:4-50, driving while under the influence of alcohol (DWI), is "a crime or violation of the disorderly persons law[.]" N.J.S.A. 2A:84A-22.2.

I

At approximately 7:00 a.m. on November 17, 1986, defendant, Linda Schreiber, driving alone, was involved in a one-car accident. Her car skidded back and forth off of and onto the roadway. Finally, it left the roadway, flipped over and came to rest upside down in a grassy area near the roadway. Ms. Schreiber was thrown from the car, sustaining serious injuries that necessitated a one-month hospital stay.

Two Hopewell Township police officers, as well as the Hopewell Borough Rescue Squad, responded to the scene. Because of Mrs. Schreiber's extensive injuries, the rescue squad rushed her to the Princeton Medical Center. The police officers, Sergeant Erdelsky and Patrolman Simonelli, therefore, were not able to speak to her at the scene. At that time, however, the officers did observe the accident scene and spoke with a person who had witnessed the car leave the road.

Ms. Schreiber, injured and unconscious, was admitted to the hospital through its emergency room, where the medical staff conducted several tests, including a blood test. Although neither police officer was present nor requested such a test, the medical staff administered it for diagnostic reasons.

On December 15, 1986, an emergency-room physician at the Princeton Medical Center called the Hopewell Police Department and revealed that the blood test showed Ms. Schreiber's blood alcohol level to be .26% at the time of her admission to the hospital. Prior to that time the police had issued defendant a summons only for failure to wear a seatbelt, contrary to N.J.S.A. 39:3-76.2. Based on this new information, Sergeant Erdelsky then issued Ms. Schreiber additional summonses for DWI, contrary to N.J.S.A. 39:4-50, and for careless driving, contrary to N.J.S.A. 39:4-97. The summonses were issued twenty-nine days after the accident, on the day after Ms Schreiber was discharged from the hospital and one day before the statute of limitations on motor vehicle violations expired.

Believing that he had to comply with State v. Dyal, 97 N.J. 229, 478 A.2d 390 (1984), Sergeant Erdelsky prepared an affidavit in support of his application for a subpoena duces tecum ordering the hospital to produce defendant's medical records. In response to the subpoena, the hospital produced the records. After a hearing the court denied Ms. Schreiber's motion to suppress the evidence contained in those records.

Subsequently, Ms. Schreiber was found guilty in municipal court of DWI and failure to wear a seatbelt. Defendant appealed her DWI conviction to the Law Division, which, after a trial de novo, also found her guilty of DWI. Defendant lost her license to drive for six months and was sentenced to twelve to forty-eight hours detention at an Intoxication Driver Resource Center. Miscellaneous fines and such charges likewise were imposed on Ms. Schreiber. Defendant then appealed to the Appellate Division, which reversed her conviction on the ground that the blood test should have been suppressed due to a violation of the patient-physician privilege. 240 N.J.Super. 507, 573 A.2d 942.

We granted certification, 122 N.J. 166, 584 A.2d 232 (1990), and now reverse the Appellate Division judgment and reinstate the judgment of the trial court.

II

Of privileges, it has been noted that "their effect ... is clearly inhibitive; rather than facilitating the illumination of truth, they shut out the light." E. Cleary, McCormick on Evidence, (3rd Ed.1984) § 72, p. 171. Nonetheless, for reasons considered important by society, witnesses are permitted to withhold relevant, often invaluable, evidence from the search for truth. State v. Dyal, supra, 97 N.J. at 237, 478 A.2d 390.

Because privileges have such effect, courts here and elsewhere have long construed them narrowly in an attempt to promote, at once, the goals of the privilege and the truthseeking role of the courts. See, e.g., United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 710, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 3108, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039, 1065 (1974) ("Whatever their origins, these exceptions to the demand of every man's evidence are not lightly created nor expansively construed, for they are in derogation of the search for truth."); State v. Dyal, supra, 97 N.J. at 237, 478 A.2d 390 ("The inevitable effect of allowing the privilege, nonetheless, is the withholding of evidence, often of the most reliable and probative kind.... [T]o the extent that the privilege is honored, it may undermine the search for truth ... [and] is restrictively construed."). Those principles give us our rule of construction for interpreting the statutory privilege of relatively recent vintage.

The patient-physician privilege, which did not exist at common law, was added to New Jersey's legal landscape by statute in 1968. State v. Dyal, supra, 97 N.J. at 235-36, 478 A.2d 390. The relevant portion of that statute reads:

Communications between physician and patient considered privileged under certain circumstances. Except as otherwise provided in this act, a person, whether or not a party, has a privilege in a civil action or in a prosecution for a crime or violation of the disorderly persons law or for an act of juvenile delinquency ... [L. 1968, c. 185, § 2, eff. July 19, 1968 (now codified at N.J.S.A. 2A:84A-22.2) (emphasis added).]

Crimes in New Jersey are defined by the Code of Criminal Justice, N.J.S.A. 2C:1-1 to 2C:98-4. This court has recently reaffirmed that motor vehicle violations, including violations of a DWI statute, are not offenses under that Code. State v. Hammond, 118 N.J. 306, 318, 571 A.2d 942 (1990). There we held that "the provisions of the Code governing principles of liability are not applicable to" DWI violations. That has been our consistent position when presented with issues regarding applicable defenses, ibid.; jury charges on "lesser included" offenses before deliberations on other, criminal charges, State v. Muniz, 118 N.J. 319, 325, 571 A.2d 948 (1990), and requests for a jury trial in DWI cases, State v. Hamm, 121 N.J. 109, 577 IA.2d 1259 (1990). Our decisions on those issues lead to our conclusion on this one.

The fact that the privilege was enacted before the Code does not change the analysis. As noted above, those recent cases merely re-affirmed the longstanding position of the New Jersey courts. In 1967, before the privilege had been enacted, State v. Zucconi stated that motor vehicle violations were not "criminal" offenses. 93 N.J.Super. 380, 384-87, 226 A.2d 16 (App.Div.), aff'd, 50 N.J. 361, 235 A.2d 193 (1967). Subsequent to the enactment of the privilege, this Court stated in 1970 in State v. Macuk, 57 N.J. 1, 9, 268 A.2d 1 (1970), that "motor vehicle violations are not 'crimes' in this state, but only petty offenses." Those statements, approximately contemporaneous with passage of the statutory privilege, show that the legislature did not view a DWI violation as a "crime." Consequently, it would not have prevented a disclosure like the one in this case by granting "a privilege ... in a prosecution for a crime[.]" In sum, violation of a DWI statute is not a "crime" in New Jersey.

However, the statute itself and our statements in Macuk raise the additional question of whether a "disorderly persons offense" includes vehicular "petty offenses" as referred to in State v. Macuk, supra, 57 N.J. at 9, 268 A.2d 1. In State v. Hammond, supra, we answered that question in the negative:

The legislative history of the Motor Vehicle Act further confirms that the Legislature did not intend to cover motor vehicle offenses under the Code. Originally, drunk driving was treated under the Disorderly Persons Act as an ordinary disorderly persons offense. L. 1913, c. 67, § 1. The Legislature, however, in 1921, transferred the offense of "operat[ing] an automobile ... while under the influence of intoxicating liquor" from the Disorderly Persons Act to Title 39, the Motor Vehicle Act. L. 1921, c. 208, § 14. That statutory change effectuated the recommendation of a Commission constituted to study the question. Motor Vehicle and Traffic Act, Report to Governor and Legislature, 1 (1921). The Report urged that the Motor Vehicle Act be changed to transfer "the prohibition against intoxicated driving from the Disorderly Persons Act to the Motor Vehicle Act ..." Id. at 14. Moreover, no subsequent statutory treatment of drunk driving violations in any way suggests a change in the legislative decision to separate motor vehicle violations from disorderly persons offenses under the state's general criminal laws.

[118 N.J. at 312-13, 571 A.2d 942.]

We also noted that disorderly persons offenses and motor vehicle violations, though both petty offenses and not crimes, are distinct. Ibid.; see also State v. Senno, 79 N.J. 216, 223, 398 A.2d 873 (1979) (describing petty offenses as a "generic category"). Thus, even though Hammond...