Opinion ID: 2112694
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Heading: The Two-Hour Time Limit Issue.

Text: Earlier we said that the implied consent statute (section 321J.6) cannot be invoked unless the officer first has reasonable grounds to believe the driver had been operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. In addition to this requirement, any one of the following conditions must exist: (a) an OWI arrest, (b) a personal injury accident, (c) a PBT refusal, (d) a PBT of .10 or more, or (e) evidence of other drug use. See Iowa Code § 321J.6(1)(a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) (1989). Even though these conditions are met and the implied consent statute has been properly invoked, there can be no revocation in the limited circumstances of section 321J.6(2). Section 321J.6(2) provides: The peace officer shall determine which of the three substances, breath, blood, or urine, shall be tested. Refusal to submit to a chemical test of urine or breath is deemed a refusal to submit, and section 321J.9 [refusal to submit revocation] applies. A refusal to submit to a chemical test of blood is not deemed a refusal to submit, but in that case, the peace officer shall then determine which one of the other two substances shall be tested and shall offer the test. If the peace officer fails to offer a test within two hours after the preliminary screening test is administered or refused or the arrest is made, whichever occurs first, a test is not required, and there shall be no revocation under section 121J.9. (Emphasis added.) Here the district court applied the two-hour time limit. The court found that the OWI arrest was made when Reed was initially stopped. Because this was more than two hours before a breath specimen was requested, the court concluded there could be no revocation. Although we question whether the OWI arrest was made when Reed was initially stopped, we agree with the department that this determination is irrelevant here. We hold that the two-hour time limit does not apply to a driver like Reed who fails a chemical test under Iowa Code section 321J.12 (test result revocation). Rather, such time limit applies only to a revocation based on a refusal to submit to testing under section 321J.9. The language there shall be no revocation under section 321J.9 [refusal to submit revocation] clearly supports this conclusion. Had the legislature intended the two-hour time limit to apply to any revocation, it could easily have included language such as under section 321J.9 or 321J.12 or under this chapter. The words under section 321J.9 mean nothing under the district court's interpretation. This, of course, directly contravenes the rule that statutes should not be interpreted to make any part of them superfluous. Iowa Auto Dealers Ass'n v. Iowa Dep't of Revenue, 301 N.W.2d 760, 765 (Iowa 1981). Our interpretation of section 321J.6(2) is consistent with what we said in State v. Kelly, 430 N.W.2d 427, 431 (Iowa 1988): We think it is clear ... that the legislature intended the two-hour limitation established by section 321J.6(2) to apply only to a driver's license revocation under section 321J.9. We hold that the two-hour requirement under section 321J.6(2) is not a foundational requirement for the admissibility of evidence in an OMVI prosecution. Here the district court thought Kelly had no application because it dealt with admissibility of test results in a criminal prosecution rather than in a license revocation proceeding. Although there is this difference, we think Kelly is relevant because it speaks to the meaning of the language in section 321J.6(2), dealing with the two-hour time limit. In Kelly, we made it clear that section 321J.6(2) does not prohibit testing after the two-hour time limit has expired. The statute merely provides that a test is not required after the two hours. And a refusal to consent to a test at that time does not result in revocation. In addition, if the defendant does consent to testing and the other provisions of section 321J.6 are met, the test results are admissible in the criminal prosecution. Kelly, 430 N.W.2d at 430-31. We think the same reasoning applies to license revocation proceedings. Here not only were there reasonable grounds to believe Reed had been operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, but Reed also consented to a PBT, the results of which were above the statutory limit. At this point the requirements for implied consent for chemical testing under section 321J.6 were met. Reed then consented to the evidentiary breath test, the results of which showed a BAC at or above the statutory limit. With this last test, all of the requirements of Iowa Code section 321J.12 for test result revocation were met. The district court erred in concluding otherwise.