Source: https://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/fox-v-alexis-30739
Timestamp: 2020-08-05 02:51:29
Document Index: 93348394

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 23170', '§ 13352', '§ 13352', '§ 13352', '§ 23160', '§ 23102', '§ 23165', '§ 23102', '§ 23161', '§ 23166', '§ 23102', '§ 23171', '§ 13352', '§ 13352', '§ 23171', '§ 9', '§ 9', '§ 23165', '§ 1']

Fox v. Alexis - 38 Cal.3d 621 - Mon, 05/20/1985 | California Supreme Court Resources
Home > Opinions > Fox v. Alexis
Citation 38 Cal.3d 621
Fox v. Alexis (1985) 38 Cal.3d 621 , 214 Cal.Rptr. 132; 699 P.2d 309
Subsequently, the Department of Motor Vehicles (Department) notified Fox that his license to operate a motor vehicle had been revoked for a period of three years. The Department acted pursuant to amendments to sections 13352 and 13352.5 which became effective January 1, 1982, after the date of Fox's offense. Under prior section 13352.5 Fox's court-ordered participation in an approved alcoholism rehabilitation program for one year would have prevented the Department from suspending or revoking his license, so long as his participation was satisfactory. Under the new statutes the Department is directed to revoke Fox's license regardless of such participation. [38 Cal.3d 624]
Section 13352 fn. 2 authorizes the Department to revoke the licenses of persons convicted of specified DUI offenses. The Department's authority is [38 Cal.3d 625] circumscribed by section 13352.5, which exempts certain persons from mandatory suspension if the trial court certifies their participation in an alcoholism rehabilitation program approved pursuant to the Health and Safety Code. fn. 3
Section 13352 directs the Department to suspend or revoke the license of any person convicted of specified DUI offenses "upon receipt of a duly certified abstract of the record of any court showing that the person has been convicted. ..." According to the statute receipt of the abstract of judgment is the event which triggers administrative action. This fact does not, however, unavoidably lead to the Department's conclusion that no retroactive application of the statute is involved. [38 Cal.3d 626]
To the contrary, an examination of the language of the relevant statutes shows that the substantive basis for the revocation of petitioner's license was his commission of a DUI offense within five years of two prior offenses. (§ 23170.) The statutory requirement that all offenses have resulted in conviction and the statute's directive that the Department act only upon receipt of a "duly certified abstract of the record of any court showing that the person has been convicted of driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any drug ..." (§ 13352) do not alter the basis of the administrative action. These prerequisites are necessary in order to assure that the licensee has been found to have committed the triggering offenses in judicial proceedings conducted in accord with the constitutional guarantees of due process of law. Nevertheless, it is from the commission of the offenses, properly proved, that the sanction of license revocation flows. (Cf. Johnson v. Alexis (1983) 143 Cal.App.3d 82 [191 Cal.Rptr. 529], where the applicable statute called for suspension "'upon the second conviction of the drunk driving offense within five years.'" (143 Cal.App.3d at p. 84, quoting from former § 13352, as enacted by Stats. 1978, ch. 911, italics supplied by Court of Appeal.))
At the time Fox committed his third offense the trial court's certificate of his participation in an approved alcoholism rehabilitation program would have prevented the department from revoking his license. (Former § 13352.5, subd. (a).) Amendments to section 13352 and 13352.5 which became effective after Fox committed his offense mandate revocation of his license regardless of any such participation. To apply these new statutes to conduct which occurred prior to their effective enactment is "to apply the new law of today to the conduct of yesterday," a basic form of retroactive application of the statute. (See Pitts v. Perluss (1962) 58 Cal.2d 824, 836 [27 Cal.Rptr. 19, 377 P.2d 83].)
The Department next contends that it did not apply section 13352 retroactively because the statute looks to present fitness to exercise the driving privilege. Present fitness, according to the Department, may validly be established by reference to past conduct. The Department relies on Murrill v. State Board of Accountancy (1950) 97 Cal.App.2d 709 [218 P.2d 569].
In Murrill a public accountant lost his professional license after the State Board of Accountancy found him guilty of the unprofessional conduct of wilfully withholding income tax information about a client from the United States government. The tax returns involved had been made several years earlier; Murrill had pled guilty to a federal offense approximately a year prior to the commencement of the state board's action. The State Accountancy Act, pursuant to which the board acted, became effective after the date Murrill committed his criminal offense. [38 Cal.3d 627]
The Department's action here is, like that at issue in Johnson v. Alexis, supra, 143 Cal.App.3d 82, a sanction imposed upon the licensee under a law which came into effect after commission of the triggering offense. "To impose the suspension sanction upon him under the later enactment is to give retroactive effect to the statute." (143 Cal.App.3d 82, 85.)
[2a] In the event its action is determined to involve retroactive application of the new statutes, the Department argues its practice is consistent with the intent of the Legislature. The Department acknowledges that legislative enactments are generally presumed to operate prospectively and not retroactively unless the Legislature expresses a different intention. (In re Marriage of Bouquet (1976) 16 Cal.3d 583 [128 Cal.Rptr. 427, 546 P.2d 1371]; DiGenova v. State Board of Education (1962) 57 Cal.2d 167 [18 Cal.Rptr. 369, 367 P.2d 865].) The Department relies on the language of section 45 of chapter 940 of the Statutes of 1981 to demonstrate that the Legislature intended amended sections 13352 and 13352.5 to govern suspension [38 Cal.3d 628] of licenses due to offenses which occurred prior to the date the statutes became law.
The Department's argument is factually inaccurate. New section 23152 et seq. are not substantially the same as former section 23102. The new statutes redefine the offense of driving while intoxicated. (See Burg v. Municipal Court (1983) 35 Cal.3d 257, 264 [198 Cal.Rptr. 145, 673 P.2d 732]; cert. den. (1984) 466 U.S. 967 [80 L.Ed.2d 812, 104 S.Ct. 2337].) They provide for increased criminal penalties in the form of more lengthy mandatory jail sentences (compare § 23160 with former § 23102, subd. (c); [38 Cal.3d 629] § 23165 with former § 23102, subd. (d)), higher fines (id.) and more restrictive mandatory conditions of probation (see new § 23161; compare § 23166 with former § 23102, subd. (e); see new § 23171) as well as mandatory license revocation without the alternative of alcoholism rehabilitation for third offenders (compare §§ 13352, subd. (a)(5) and 13352.5, subds. (a) & (b) with former §§ 13352, subd. (e), and 13352.5, subd. (a); see §§ 23171, subd. (b) and 23176, subd. (b)).
[3] A wide variety of factors may be relevant to our effort to determine whether the Legislature intended a new statute to be given retroactive effect. The context of the legislation, its objective, the evils to be remedied, the history of the times and of legislation upon the same subject, public policy, and contemporaneous construction may all indicate the legislative purpose. (In re Marriage of Bouquet, supra, 16 Cal.3d at p. 587.) An express declaration that the Legislature intended the law to be applied retroactively is not necessarily required. (In re Estrada (1965) 63 Cal.2d 740, 746 [48 Cal.Rptr. 172, 408 P.2d 948].)
Section 45, subdivision (b) of chapter 940 of the Statutes of 1981, which makes any reference to a prior offense of section 23152 inclusive of prior [38 Cal.3d 630] offenses under sections 23102 or 23105, is also inapplicable to petitioner. This section serves only to ensure that repeat offenders will not be given a "clean slate" by the repeal of former sections 23102 and 23105 and their reenactment in new section 23152.
The ex post facto clauses of the state and federal Constitutions clearly prohibit retroactive application of the increased criminal sanctions of section 23152 et seq. to offenders like petitioner. (U.S. Const., art. I, § 9, cl. 3; Cal. Const., art. I, § 9; see Weaver v. Graham (1981) 450 U.S. 24 [67 L.Ed.2d 17, 101 S.Ct. 960].) No party to this action has argued that the Legislature intended or attempted to effect such a result. As noted above (ante, p. 624) provision for mandatory license revocation is included in the Vehicle Code sections defining criminal sanctions for repeat offenses which were enacted as part of the new statutory scheme. (See, §§ 23165, 23170.) It seems unlikely that the Legislature intended that these sections be retroactive insofar as they pertain to license revocation but be prospective insofar as they impose criminal sanctions. The result could lead to considerable confusion in trial court and administrative proceedings. An attempt to apply mandatory revocation provisions might suggest an improper legislative infringement of the legitimate powers of the sentencing courts to set conditions of probation as authorized by the law governing imposition of criminal sanctions. (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 1.)
We do not in any way intend to undercut the urgency of the problem presented by persons who drive automobiles while intoxicated nor the acknowledged powers of the legislative branch to enact, pursuant to its traditionally broad police power, "any measure which reasonably relates to public health or safety" in this realm. (See Burg v. Municipal Court, supra, 35 Cal.3d 257, 266.) We stress that our holding affects only the limited group of persons, like petitioner, who committed second or subsequent offenses prior to the effective dates of the 1981 and 1982 amendments to the Vehicle Code, but who were not convicted and sentenced until after the new statutes became law. The state's interest in protecting the driving public from this limited class of recidivists is adequately served, the Legislature [38 Cal.3d 631] apparently concluded, by applying to them criminal and civil penalties in effect at the time their offenses occurred.
Would a retroactive application of the new law offend ex post facto principles? I think not. Certainly the Legislature is empowered to determine a driver's present fitness to drive a car, based upon his or her past driving record. Just as a state agency may revoke a professional license for misconduct occurring prior to enactment of the statute authorizing revocation (Murrill v. State Board of Accountancy (1950) 97 Cal.App.2d 709, 711 [218 P.2d 569]), so too may the Legislature "retroactively" determine that a driver with a substantial history of drunk driving episodes should be denied further driving privileges. No forbidden ex post facto law is involved here, especially since the third or "triggering" conviction was entered after the new law went into effect.
Moreover, as Presiding Justice Puglia stated in his opinion written for the Court of Appeal in this case, "It is well established ... that statutes which provide for the suspension or revocation of licenses, are not penal statutes [38 Cal.3d 632] subject to ex post facto prohibition, even though they may require the consideration of past offenses. Such statutes are intended to protect the public rather than to punish licensees. (Foster v. Police Commissioners (1894) 102 Cal. 483, 490-491 [37 P. 763]; Furnish v. Board of Medical Examiners (1957) 149 Cal.App.2d 326, 330-331 [308 P.2d 924]; Murrill v. State Board of Accountancy [supra] 97 Cal.App.2d 709, 711-712; Ellis v. Dept. of Motor Vehicles (1942) 51 Cal.App.2d 753, 758-759 [125 P.2d 521]; Beamon v. Dept. of Motor Vehicles (1960) 180 Cal.App.2d 200, 210 [4 Cal.Rptr. 396].)"
­FN 1. All statutory references are to the Vehicle Code, unless otherwise noted.
­FN 2. Section 13352 provides in pertinent part: "(a) The department shall immediately suspend or revoke the privilege of any person to operate a motor vehicle upon receipt of a duly certified abstract of the record of any court showing that the person has been convicted of a violation of Section 23152 or 23153 or subdivision (a) of Section 23109... For the purposes of this section, suspension or revocation shall be as follows:
­FN 3. Section 13352.5 provides in relevant part: "(a) Unless ordered to do so by the court upon a finding that the terms and conditions of probation were violated, the department shall not suspend, pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (a) of Section 13352, but shall restrict the privilege of any person to operate a motor vehicle upon a conviction or finding that the person violated Section 23152, but only if the court has certified to the department that the court has granted probation to the person on conditions which include the conditions specified in subdivision (b) of Section 23166 and the court has restricted the privilege to operate a motor vehicle as provided in that subdivision."
­FN 4. Murrill is more pertinent to the Department's argument that retroactive application of the statutes does not abridge Fox's constitutional rights of due process and against ex post facto application of a penal statute.
This court has held that in modern society the right to retain a driver's license is a fundamental vested right such that administrative action revoking it is subject to full and independent judicial review. (Berlinghieri v. Department of Motor Vehicles (1983) 33 Cal.3d 392 [188 Cal.Rptr. 891, 657 P.2d 383].) But we have declined to elevate the right to the level of a fundamental constitutional one which requires application of the "strict scrutiny" standard to review of the substantive validity of regulatory legislative measures. (Hernandez v. Department of Motor Vehicles (1981) 30 Cal.3d 70, 83 [177 Cal.Rptr. 566, 634 P.2d 917].) Nor, in spite of the close relationship which criminal sanctions for DUI bear to license revocation under the current statutory scheme, have we determined that license revocation is a penal sanction subject to the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto application of the law.
­FN 5. Sections 2, 6, 7 and 10 state rules of construction applicable to the provisions of the Vehicle Code. Section 2 is particularly pertinent: "The provisions of this code, insofar as they are substantially the same as existing provisions relating to the same subject matter, shall be construed as restatements and continuations thereof and not as new enactments."
Mon, 05/20/1985 38 Cal.3d 621 Review - Criminal Appeal Opinion issued
May 20 1985 Opinion: Affirmed
SCOCAL, Fox v. Alexis , 38 Cal.3d 621 available at: (https://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/fox-v-alexis-30739) (last visited Tuesday August 4, 2020).