Court Opinion

ID: 9635064
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:34:28.438799+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:16.882378
License: Public Domain

STEPHEN N. LIMBAUGH, JR., Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
Nicholas Reed had an accident. He ran his vehicle off the road and got it stuck in a ditch so that he had to walk home and call for a tow truck to pull it out. He did not intend for this to happen. The case is as simple as that.
The word “accident,” of course, has a plain and ordinary meaning. It is not a legal term or a term of art, nor is it given a separate and special definition in section 577.039, the statute in question. Instead, the plain meaning of the word is to be found in the dictionary. Cox v. Director of Revenue, 98 S.W.3d 548, 550 (Mo. banc 2003). An accident, then, is:
*569la: an event or condition occurring by chance or arising from unknown or remote causes ... [or] b: lack of intention or necessity: chance — often opposed to design ... [or] c: an unforeseen unplanned event or condition ... [or, most pertinently] 2a: a usu. sudden event or change occurring without intent or volition through carelessness, unawareness, ignorance, or a combination of causes and producing an unfortunate result....
WEBSTER’S THIRD NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY 11 (1986).
Obviously, Reed’s misconduct falls within all of these overlapping definitions, so much so that one wonders how the Court perceives otherwise. Indeed, just last term, in State v. Madorie, 156 S.W.3d 351 (Mo. banc 2005), a DWI ease, this Court reviewed nearly identical circumstances in which a driver “got stuck in the ditch” after “trying to turn around” and repeatedly referred to the incident as an “accident.” And further, for what it’s worth (and in blatant contravention of the representations in Reed’s brief!), the alcohol influence report filed by the arresting officer makes at least three independent references to an “accident” having occurred.
If a word in a statute has a plain and ordinary meaning, and if there is no specific statutory definition to the contrary, the plain and ordinary meaning controls, and there is no need to apply rules of statutory construction. Vance Bros., Inc. v. Obermiller Const. Services, Inc., 181 S.W.3d 562 (Mo. banc 2006). That is the case here. The words in the statutes are not ambiguous, so there is no need for statutory construction.
Nonetheless, the majority relies on the rule that “statutes relating to the same subject matter should be construed consistently with one another,” to superimpose the elements of the crime of leaving the scene of an accident from section 577.060 on to a different statute using similar terms, section 577.039. These elements, however, which “require a showing of either personal injury or property damage,” are specific to section 577.060 and do not purport to extend to any other statute. Furthermore, the fact that the two statutes use similar terms does not necessarily mean that “they are statutes relating to the same subject matter.” In my view, the two statutes relate to different subjects: section 577.060 imposes substantive criminal liability on the act of leaving the scene of an accident; in contrast, section 577.039 sets out the procedural rules pertaining to warrantless arrests in DWI cases. In short, I see nothing in section 577.060 to suggest that leaving the scene of an accident in which there was no personal injury or property damage is no less leaving the scene of an accident. One can still leave the scene of an accident without incurring criminal liability. Unfortunately, the majority rewrites the statutes so that leaving the scene of an accident under section 577.039 can only be accomplished by the commission of the crime of leaving the scene of an accident under section 577.060.
The majority also points to the definition of “accident” in the Missouri drivers’ guide for the proposition that the Department of Revenue, itself, construes the word “accident” so that it is limited to events involving personal injury or property damage. However, the definition of “accident” in the drivers’ guide mirrors the definitional language in section 577.060, and it is stated with the clear purpose to explain that it can be a crime to leave the scene of an accident. Nothing is said about accidents in the context of warrantless arrests in DWI cases.
For these reasons, I would hold that an accident occurred, that Reed left the scene *570of the accident, and that, as a result, his subsequent arrest was lawful.