Wright v. Malloy

• Decision Date: 25 March 1974
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 6758.
• Citation: 373 F. Supp. 1011
• Parties: Charles M. WRIGHT, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated, and Thomas Matthews et al., Intervening Plaintiffs, v. James E. MALLOY, Commissioner, Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Vermont

373 F. Supp. 1011

Charles M. WRIGHT, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated, and Thomas Matthews et al., Intervening Plaintiffs, v. James E. MALLOY, Commissioner, Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles.

Civ. A. No. 6758.

United States District Court, D. Vermont.

March 25, 1974.

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Atty. Kathleen M. Mitchell, Vermont Legal Aid, Inc., Springfield, Vt., and J. Morris Clark, Vermont Legal Aid, Inc., Burlington, Vt., for plaintiff Charles M. Wright and plaintiff intervenor Thomas Matthews.

A. Jeffry Taylor, Rutland, Vt., for plaintiff intervenor Jacques G. Bernard.

Peter E. Piche, Piche & Gedulig, Burlington, Vt., for plaintiff intervenor David J. Hance.

William O. Wuester, Asst. Atty. Gen., Montpelier, Vt., for defendant.

Before OAKES, Circuit Judge, HOLDEN, Chief District Judge, and COFFRIN, District Judge.

COFFRIN, District Judge.

This is an action brought under 42 U. S.C. § 1983 (1970). Plaintiffs, each of whom has been convicted of a motor vehicle violation indicating fault arising out of an accident, seek to enjoin the defendant Commissioner of Motor Vehicles for the State of Vermont from suspending their operator's licenses for failure to furnish proof of financial responsibility to satisfy any claim for damages which might arise out of the accident for which they have been convicted. The authority vested in the Commissioner to require proof of financial responsibility of the plaintiffs in these circumstances is contained in 23 V.S.A. § 801(a)(4)(Supp.1973).¹ The authority of the Commissioner to suspend the licenses of the plaintiffs for failure to satisfy the requirement of § 801(a)(4) is found in 23 V.S.A. § 802 (Supp.1973).²

The plaintiffs were involved in separate automobile accidents out of which motor vehicle violation charges were brought against them. Each plaintiff pleaded nolo contendere to the charges and, since none of them was covered by a liability insurance policy at the time of the accident, the Commissioner required them to file proof of financial responsibility and upon their failure or inability to do so took steps to suspend their licenses. In order to retain their licenses the financial responsibility statute requires the plaintiffs to obtain a policy of automobile liability insurance to cover them against future accidents and either a written release from all persons who sustained damages as the result of the accident in which they were involved or a security deposit adequate to satisfy any judgment for damages as the Commissioner determines may be recovered against the operator as the result of the accident. Once a person's license has been suspended under Vermont's Financial Responsibility Law it remains suspended until the obligation of the operator is satisfied in one of the three following ways. First, the operator obtains releases from or a favorable judgment against all persons deemed by the Commissioner to have suffered damages as a result of the accident. Second, the operator satisfies any judgment rendered against him for damages arising out of the accident. Third, no action is brought against the operator by any injured person or his legal representatives within one year from the date of the accident. Upon reinstatement of his license in any one of the above ways the operator is required to maintain proof of his financial responsibility until relieved by the Commissioner of that requirement by one of the statutorily enumerated means.³

The plaintiffs seek to have us declare 23 V.S.A. § 801(a)(4) (Supp.1973) unconstitutional, principally on due process and equal protection grounds. Their challenge is five fold. First, they claim that the statute is unconstitutional because it provides no hearing prior to license suspension on the question whether there is a reasonable possibility of a judgment resulting from the accident being rendered against them. Second, plaintiffs claim that the statute arbitrarily discriminates between those convicted of a motor vehicle violation and those persons at fault in an accident but not convicted of a violation. Third, plaintiffs contend that a hearing should be provided on the amount of security required of those at fault in an accident. Fourth, plaintiffs challenge the requirement of posting security for past accidents as unjustified by any compelling state interest and therefore violative of the Fourteenth Amendment. Finally, the statutory scheme is challenged as improperly preferring a single class of potential creditors.

This court is vested with jurisdiction by virtue of 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3).

I. PLAINTIFFS' CLAIM THAT DUE PROCESS IS DENIED THEM WITHOUT A SEPARATE AND INDEPENDENT DETERMINATION OF FAULT.

The purpose of the Vermont Financial Responsibility Act is to protect the public and ensure that those motor vehicle operators who cause accidents for which they are liable have adequate resources to satisfy any claims which arise therefrom. Miller v. Malloy, 343 F.Supp. 46 (D.Vt.1972); McNamara v. Malloy, 337 F.Supp. 732 (D.Vt.1971). As the late Chief Judge Leddy said in McNamara "this legislative purpose is both laudatory and, in and of itself not constitutionally impermissible." 337 F. Supp. at 736. Judge Leddy then determined that the Vermont act relied upon fault related concepts and 23 V.S.A. § 801(a)(3)⁴ as then enacted was constitutionally infirm under the authority of Bell v. Burson, 402 U.S. 535, 91 S.Ct. 1586, 29 L.Ed.2d 90 (1971), for failing to provide a hearing prior to license suspension for those operators involved in an accident who were unable to furnish proof of financial responsibility.

Following the McNamara decision, the 1971 legislature amended 23 V.S.A. §§ 801(a)(1)(A) and (a)(3)⁵ to require proof of financial responsibility only upon the determination of fault by the Commissioner after due notice and hearing. At the same time, the statute challenged in this action was amended to provide for a hearing with reference to fault if the operator's conviction for the motor vehicle violation arising out of the accident does not indicate that he was at fault in any degree. If the conviction indicates fault, the operator is required to file proof of future financial responsibility and suffer the loss of his license without an independent hearing as to such fault. It is this failure to provide an independent determination of fault by way of a hearing on which we conceive the plaintiffs' principal claim that the statute is unconstitutional to be based.

Accordingly, we first take up plaintiffs' claim that the absence of a pre-suspension hearing constitutes a denial of due process and a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Bell v. Burson, 402 U.S. 535, 91 S.Ct. 1586, 29 L.Ed.2d 90 (1971), was the precursor of this and many other suits challenging financial responsibility laws in many states. There, the Supreme Court held that a Georgia statute that provided an administrative hearing prior to suspension, but limited the evidence allowable in the hearing to questions whether the petitioner or his vehicle was involved in the accident, whether the petitioner had complied with the provisions of the law, and whether the petitioner came within any exceptions of the law, was an unconstitutional denial of due process in that it excluded evidence of fault or liability when the entire statutory scheme was based on those concepts. The Court held that an operator's license, once issued, was an important interest of the licensee and could not be taken away without the procedural due process required by the Fourteenth Amendment. 402 U.S. at 539, 91 S.Ct. 1586, 29 L.Ed.2d 90. The Court also stated:

Since the only purpose of the provisions before us is to obtain security from which to pay any judgments against the licensee resulting from the accident, we hold that procedural due process will be satisfied by an inquiry limited to the determination whether there is a reasonable possibility of judgments in the amounts claimed being rendered against the licensee. (emphasis added). 402 U.S. at 540, 91 S.Ct. at 1590.

Where a state's statutory scheme such as Vermont's is based on fault, before an operator's license may be suspended, the Supreme Court's holding in Bell requires that the State provide him with an opportunity to be heard on the question of whether there is a reasonable possibility of a judgment being rendered against him as a result of the accident.

Section 801(a)(3) provides a hearing for those drivers who were allegedly at fault in an accident but were not convicted of a motor vehicle violation. Likewise § 801(a)(4) provides a hearing for those drivers convicted of a motor vehicle violation that does not indicate fault. It is only in the instance of an operator convicted of a motor vehicle violation indicating fault for the accident in which he was involved that the provisions of § 801(a)(4) do not provide for an independent hearing on the question of fault. It is reasonable to assume that the legislature felt that a further hearing was unnecessary when the opportunity to contest fault was afforded the driver by the nature of the plea which he entered to the charges brought against him. A plea of not guilty would earn such an operator the right to be heard by the court with undoubted procedural and substantive due process rights. On the other hand, a plea of guilty or nolo contendere to the violation indicates that the operator either declines to contest the question of fault or that he indeed was at fault to some degree which he is willing to admit. Bell does not require that a hearing be held in all cases in which proof of financial responsibility is sought by the Commissioner but merely that there is a forum where the motorist may have the question of probability of fault determined before he is made to suffer suspension of his license for failing to establish his financial responsibility. The Vermont scheme under 801(a)(4) leaves it to the motor vehicle driver to elect...