Opinion ID: 874515
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Did the district court err when it granted DMV's motion on the basis of immunity?

Text: Cafferty argues that the district court erred when it granted summary judgment to DMV on the basis of immunity because DMV was grossly negligent by reinstating Hedges's license or by not refusing to issue him a license. First, Cafferty asserts that DMV's failure to reinstate Hedges's license using the procedures set out in I.C. § 49-326A amounts to gross negligence or reckless, willful or wanton conduct. Second, Cafferty asserts that DMV's issuing Hedges violated I.C. § 49-303(6) or (10) and was therefore grossly negligent or reckless, willful and wanton conduct. Under ITCA, gross negligence is the doing or failing to do an act which a reasonable person in a similar situation and of similar responsibility would, with a minimum of contemplation, be inescapably drawn to recognize his or her duty to do or not do such act and that failing that duty shows deliberate indifference to the harmful consequences to others. I.C. § 6-904C(1). Reckless, willful and wanton conduct is present only when a person intentionally and knowingly does or fails to do an act creating unreasonable risk of harm to another, and which involves a high degree of probability that such harm will result. I.C. § 6-904C(2). We begin with Cafferty's arguments regarding the reinstatement of Hedges's license without using the procedures set out in I.C. § 49-326A. Cafferty asserts that because Judge Morfitt's order suspending Hedges's license was silent as to the start date of the suspension, I.C. § 18-8005(5)(d) fills the gap left by the silence. Idaho Code § 18-8005(5) provides the penalties for a person who has two or more DUI convictions. It requires, among other penalties, that the driver shall have his license suspended beginning after release from imprisonment. I.C. § 18-8005(5)(d). Cafferty asserts DMV should have continued to treat the five-year suspension as if it became effective upon Hedges's release from prison and used the procedures for reinstatement set out in I.C. § 49-326A. Therefore, she concludes, the changes to the start date of Hedges's suspension amount to gross negligence or reckless, willful and wanton conduct. DMV argues that I.C. § 49-326A governs the administration of court ordered suspensions only when the judge has specifically ordered the suspension to begin after the release from prison, and that it was entitled to rely on both the 1999 order and the 2004 issuance of a temporary license when determining the start date of the suspension rather than assuming it commenced upon Hedges's release. Therefore, DMV concludes, it did not act with gross negligence or recklessly, willfully and wantonly when it issued Hedges a license. Here, the reinstatement of Hedges's license was possibly governed by two separate statutes: I.C. § 49-326A, [4] governing the administration of judicially suspended licenses that become effective after release from imprisonment, and I.C. § 49-328, [5] governing the reinstatement of suspended licenses when the period for suspension has expired. These statutes work together. For I.C. § 49-326A to apply to a reinstatement, the judge must order the suspension to begin upon release from imprisonment; if so, then the DMV must follow certain procedures, such as requiring documentation from the driver seeking reinstatement regarding his release date, before it can reinstate the license. Idaho Code § 49-328 applies to all situations once the period of suspension has expired. Therefore, if a driver seeks a reinstatement, and that driver's suspension was ordered to begin after the period of his imprisonment, he must meet both the requirements of I.C. §§ 49-326A and 49-328. If, however, the driver's suspension does not begin after the period of his imprisonment, then he must meet only the requirements of I.C. § 49-328 before DMV shall reinstate his license. There is no question that DMV followed the procedures set out in I.C. § 49-328. Therefore, it can only have acted negligently if the reinstatement of Hedges's license should have also been governed by I.C. § 49-326A. In order to determine if I.C. § 49-326A applied to the reinstatement, it is necessary to determine whether Hedges's suspension was ordered to begin after his release. Judge Morfitt's original order provided for a five-year suspension, but was silent as to the start date. However, his subsequent issuance of a temporary license to Hedges indicated that the suspension did not commence after the date Hedges was released from prison. Instead, it specifically states that the suspension began on July 9, 1999. Cafferty insists that this does not matter for two reasons: (1) Reed had already changed the suspension start date prior to receiving the temporary license; and (2) DMV should have ignored the district court's statement and instead applied I.C. § 18-8005(5)(d) to figure the start date of the suspension. Both of these arguments fail. To begin, Cafferty's first argument fails under the facts of the case. Although Reed first changed the start date on his own accord to July 20, 1999, he again changed it to reflect the judge's statement that the suspension began on July 9, 1999. Therefore, the fact that Reed had previously changed it is immaterial because the DMV did not rely on this change when reinstating Hedges's license. Since Hedges's license was reinstated on July 13, 2004, it is clear that DMV did not and could not have relied on Reed's original change when it reinstated Hedges's license. While we have found immunity as to the claim under I.C. § 49-326A, the DMV's actions are not above reproach. The evidence before us indicates that DMV ignored the procedure for reinstating licenses under I.C. § 49-326A. There is no indication that DMV implemented the changes prescribed by the legislature when it adopted this statute, nor even trained their employees so as to make them aware of a secondary procedure they would need to follow in certain instances. The failure to implement training to follow the Legislature's mandates by a shoddy or nonexistent training program is inexcusable. Next, Cafferty's second argument also fails as only the district court had the authority to suspend Hedges's license as part of his sentence and DMV could not disregard this authority. Hedges's suspension was part of his criminal sentence, and our courts are charged with the authority to pass, determine and impose sentences. I.C. §§ 18-106; 18-107. In addition to the charge, our legislature has given courts the exclusive authority to suspend or revoke licenses upon conviction for DUI. I.C. § 49-325(1)(b). DMV has the authority to suspend licenses when a court fails to order a mandatory suspension. I.C. § 49-326(1)(a). [6] However, such was not the case here, as the district court ordered a mandatory suspension. Rather than failing to order a mandatory suspension, in this instance the district court incorrectly applied the provisions of I.C. § 18-8005(5)(d) when sentencing Hedges for DUI by failing to begin the mandatory suspension after Hedges's incarceration ended. However, this mistake does not give DMV the authority to apply the provisions of I.C. § 18-8005(5)(d) in derogation of the court's later statement regarding the start date, nor does it give DMV the authority to refuse to apply the start date later indicated by the judge to Hedges's suspension. See I.C. § 49-328 (the DMV shall reinstate a license when the period of suspension has ended). The DMV could not disregard the judge's clear statement as to the start date. See Fullmer v. Collard, 143 Idaho 171, 174, 139 P.3d 773, 776 (Ct.App.2006) (stating that the IDOC is not justified in refusing to apply to a defendant's sentence credits incorrectly calculated by the sentencing judge); see also In re Weick, 142 Idaho 275, 279, 127 P.3d 178, 182 (2005) (noting that a party may not knowingly violate a court order he believes to be incorrect or he risks contempt and noting that public policy dictates that parties obey court orders). Here, DMV relied on the information provided in the district court's order and temporary license. DMV had a copy of the temporary license prior to the date they reinstated Hedges's license, and they used the date on the temporary license to recalculate the end date of Hedges's suspension. The requirements of I.C. § 49-326A, which apply only when a suspension begins after releases from imprisonment, were not applicable here because Hedges's suspension began prior to his imprisonment according to a later, explicit statement by the district court. DMV was entitled, then, to rely only on the provisions of I.C. § 49-328 when reinstating Hedges's license. Therefore, as a matter of law, DMV's reinstatement of Hedges's license using the requirements of I.C. § 49-328 but not those in I.C. § 49-326A was not grossly negligent or reckless, willful and wanton. We affirm the district court's dismissal of the negligence claim based on I.C. § 18-8005(5)(d) and I.C. § 49-326A on summary judgment We turn now to Cafferty's argument that DMV was grossly negligent in issuing Hedges a license because DMV has a mandatory duty to not issue licenses to either habitual drunkards or to those whom DMV should have known would be harmful to the public's safety if allowed to drive on our highways. See I.C. § 49-303(6), (10). [7] Here, there are genuine issues of material fact precluding summary judgment on the issue of DMV's immunity. At the time DMV reinstated Hedges's license, he had eight previous DUIs, and DMV's records show a total of seven DUIs, three being felony DUIs. While our case law and statutes fail to define habitual drunkard, a reasonable jury could find that a person with seven DUI convictions is a habitual drunkard, and that DMV acted with gross negligence or recklessly, willfully and wantonly by reinstating the unrestricted license of a person with such a large number of DUIs. [8] Likewise, a jury could also find that DMV should have known that Hedges would be harmful to the public if allowed to drive on the highways of this state. Hedges had a lengthy history of DUI arrests, had served the full aggregate sentence for his last felony DUI and had received the maximum suspension sentence allowed under Idaho law. All of these facts suggest that he would be a danger to the public if allowed to drive. Therefore, because there is a question of fact as to whether DMV acted with gross negligence or recklessly, willfully and wantonly, we remand to the district court.