Court Opinion

ID: 9785329
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 21:15:49.167725+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:15.956995
License: Public Domain

SERCOMBE, J.,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. ORS 164.345 defines the crime of criminal mischief in the third degree to require that, “with intent to cause substantial inconvenience to the owner or to another person, * * * [a] person tampers or interferes with property of another.” The issue in this case is the meaning of “tampers or interferes” under that statute. Based largely on a reference in the legislative history of ORS 164.345 that the existence of property damage is not necessary to prove the crime, and a dictionary definition of the word “interfere” as including “to come in collision,” the lead opinion concludes that “ORS 164.345 encompasses more than circumstances where the property of another is affected or damaged.” 229 Or App at 433 (Edmonds, J., lead opinion). According to the lead opinion, a person can “tamper or interfere” with property without producing any effect upon the property at all, merely by producing an “unlawful collision or contact” with the property. 229 Or App at 435 (Edmonds, J., lead opinion). I disagree with the lead opinion’s conclusion that interference with property under ORS 164.345 can occur without any effect on the property. The lead opinion’s proposed “unlawful collision or contact” test is not moored in the text, context, or legislative history of the law. Moreover, the application of the “unlawful collision or contact” test criminalizes benign conduct, a result that surely was not intended by the legislature in enacting the provision.
*443In my view, the meaning of ORS 164.345 is apparent from its text and from the plain and ordinary meaning of the words “tampers or interferes.” Under a plain meaning analysis, a person “tampers or interferes with property” by producing an effect on the property, i.e., by negatively affecting the property’s condition or usefulness. That plain meaning of “tampers or interferes” is corroborated by the context of the statutory phrase. The legislature more likely intended “tampers or interferes” to require an actual effect on property because it required a parallel intent to cause “substantial inconvenience to the owner [of property] or to another person” in order to commit the crime. That “inconvenience” pertains to a potential change in the status of property so as to make the enjoyment or use of the property less convenient, a result that necessarily requires an effect on property. The actual effect required by ORS 164.345 (a tampering or interference with property) is likely to be similar to the required intended effect by the mens rea element of the crime (a substantial inconvenience in the sense of making the enjoyment or use of the property less convenient). Moreover, the legislature defined related crimes that proscribe property “interference” to require an effect on property in order to prove a violation. Finally, the legislative history of the provision suggests that ORS 164.345 was intended to replace older “criminal tampering” and “malicious mischief’ statutes, laws that regulated activities that affected the utility or functioning of various properties, and that ORS 164.345 was intended to have the same ambit. Because there was no evidence in this case that kicking the interior rear door and window of the police cruiser affected the vehicle’s condition or usefulness, defendant’s motion for a judgment of acquittal should have been granted.
Defendant was convicted of criminal mischief in the third degree under ORS 164.345, which provides:
“(1) A person commits the crime of criminal mischief in the third degree if, with intent to cause substantial inconvenience to the owner or to another person, and having no right to do so nor reasonable ground to believe that the person has such right, the person tampers or interferes with property of another.”
*444(Emphasis added.) The question presented in this case is whether the evidence that defendant kicked the inside of a patrol car is sufficient as a matter of law to prove that he tampered or interfered with property within the meaning of ORS 164.345.7
*445We discern the legislative intent by the use of the term “tampers or interferes” in ORS 164.345 by examining the text and context of the statute, giving words of common usage their “plain, natural, and ordinary meaning.” PGE v. Bureau of Labor and Industries, 317 Or 606, 611, 859 P2d 1143 (1993). The context of a statute includes other provisions of the same law, as well as related statutes. Id. We look to the legislative history of the statute for evidence of legislative intent when that history is useful to the analysis. ORS 174.020; State v. Gaines, 346 Or 160, 170-71, 206 P3d 1042 (2009).
The plain meaning of “tampers or interferes” with property is to produce an effect on property that changes its physical nature or limits the property’s usefulness. That effect could include circumstances beyond actual physical damage to the property, such as the manner in which property is used or consumed. The relevant definition of the word “tamper” in the context of the statute is “to interfere so as to weaken or change for the worse.” Webster’s Third New Int’l Dictionary 2336 (unabridged ed 2002). Similarly, in this context, the pertinent definition for the word “interfere” is “to act reciprocally so as to augment, diminish, or otherwise affect one another.” Id. at 1178. Analogously, the definition of “interference” includes “the act of meddling in or hampering an activity or process.” Id. Each of those definitions requires an effect on an activity or property by the defined conduct— that the property or activity be weakened, changed, opposed, diminished, or hampered. Thus, the ordinary meaning of “tampers or interferes” with property requires that there be an effect on the property so as change its physical nature or to inhibit its usefulness.
That meaning of “tampers or interferes” is consistent with the statutory context of the phrase. The first relevant context is another element of the same crime, the mens rea required under ORS 164.345—the required “intent to cause substantial inconvenience to the owner or to another person.” An “inconvenience” is “the quality or state of being *446unsuited or unadapted to personal needs or comfort * * * something that gives trouble, embarrassment, or uneasiness : something that disturbs or impedes.” Webster’s at 1145. That “inconvenience” relates to particular property. The statute requires the intended inconvenience be “to the owner” of property or “to another person,” also with respect to the property. Therefore, to establish criminal mischief in the third degree, the state must show that defendant had the intent to “cause substantial inconvenience,” i.e., to make the property “unsuited or unadapted to the personal needs or comfort” of another. It stands to reason that the actual effect required by ORS 164.345 (“tampers or interferes with property of another”) must be consistent with that necessary intended effect (“to cause substantial inconvenience to the owner or to another person”). The required intended effect and the required actual effect are to cause property to become “unsuited or unadapted to the personal needs or comfort” of the owner of the property or another.
That plain meaning of “interferes” in ORS 164.345 is also corroborated by the way “interfere” is used in ORS 164.365, a related statute that defines the elements of criminal mischief in the first degree. The crime of criminal mischief in the first degree requires an “intent to damage property,” together with actual damage to property above a particular dollar amount, damage that either is produced by described means or is inflicted on a particular type of property. One of the variants of the proscribed effects or means of property damage is damage to property “[b]y intentionally interfering with, obstructing or adulterating in any manner the service of a public utility, telecommunications carrier, railroad, public transportation facility or medical facility!.]” ORS 164.365(l)(a)(F). Under that statute, “interfering with” a service requires an effect on the service, in the same way that “obstructing” or “adulterating” the service requires such an effect.
In the same vein, ORS 164.365(l)(b) defines criminal mischief in the first degree to include an intent to damage property where the person “having no right to do so nor reasonable ground to believe that the person has such right”
*447“[i]ntentionally uses, manipulates, arranges or rearranges the property of a public utility, telecommunications carrier, railroad, public transportation facility or medical facility used in direct service to the public so as to interfere with its efficiency.”
(Emphasis added.) Under that part of the statute, to “interfere” with property requires an actual effect on its efficiency through the use, manipulation, arrangement, or rearrangement of the property. It stands to reason that the meaning of “interfere” for purposes of criminal mischief in the first degree under ORS 164.365—to require a produced effect on property—is the same as the meaning of “interfere” for purposes of criminal mischief in the third degree under ORS 164.345.
Finally, the term “tampers or otherwise interferes” is used in another related statute, ORS 164.373 (defining the crime of tampering with cable television equipment). ORS 164.373(l)(a) provides that a person commits the crime if the person
“[klnowingly tampers or otherwise interferes with or connects to by any means, whether mechanical, electrical, acoustical or other means, any cable, wire or other device used for the distribution of cable television service, without authority of the provider of such serviee[.]”
(Emphasis added.) As used in that related statute, “tampers or otherwise interferes” means changing the physical characteristics or functioning of the affected property, again requiring an actual effect on the use of property. That meaning of “tampers or otherwise interferes” in ORS 164.373, a later-adopted but related statute, again suggests a common legislative intent in the use of “tampers or interferes” in ORS 164.345—the production of an effect on property, something that inhibits the use, function, or value of property. All of those contextual clues—the intended effect required by the mens rea element of the crime of criminal mischief in the third degree and the use of “interferes” and “tampers or otherwise interferes” in related crimes—corroborate the plain meaning of “tampers or interferes” in ORS 164.345.
The legislative history of ORS 164.345 supports a construction of the statute that requires an effect on property *448by tampering or interfering. ORS 163.345 was enacted in 1971 as part of the revision of the criminal code. Or Laws 1971, ch 743, §§ 145-47. ORS 164.345 combined older “criminal tampering” and “malicious mischief’ statutes. As such, when ORS 164.345 was enacted, the statutory provisions that had previously existed prohibiting “interference” with various types of property rights were repealed.8 That history is explained in the official commentary to the criminal law revision:
“[ORS 164.345(1) was] intended to cover the type of conduct that is not thievery, but rather amounts to unauthorized and unlawful interference with the property of another. Damage to property is not an element of this crime.
* * ‡ *
“Taken as a whole, the proposed draft combines the features of ‘criminal tampering or interference’ with those of ‘malicious mischief.’ ”
Commentary to Criminal Law Revision Commission Proposed Oregon Criminal Code, Final Draft and Report §§ 145-147,153 (July 1970).
The lead opinion reasons that ORS 164.345 does not require any effect on property, because the commentary to the statute noted that “[d]amage to property is not an element of this crime.” The lead opinion reads into that comment “an absolute and plenary declaration that any form of damage to property, including loss of use of property, is not intended by the legislature to constitute an element of the crime.” 229 Or App at 434 (Edmonds, J., lead opinion). The lead opinion reasons that “damage” to property is more than *449a physical change to the property, but also includes loss of use of the property, citing the definition of “economic damages” at ORS 31.710(2)(a) as including “necessarily incurred costs due to loss of use of property.” 229 Or App at 430 n 1 (Edmonds, J., lead opinion).
With respect, the meaning of recoverable “damages” in tort litigation has nothing to do with the meaning of “damage to property’ as used in the commentary or the criminal mischief statutes. Cf. Deupree v. ODOT, 173 Or App 623, 628, 22 P3d 773 (2001) (“ ‘damages’ * * * generally refers to monetary compensation for a loss or harm,” whereas “the singular form ‘damage’ * * * normally refers to a loss, injury, or harm resulting from an act or omission”). The commentary note contrasts the effect on property required by the crime of third-degree criminal mischief (“tampers or interferes with property of another”) with the effect on property required by the crime of second-degree criminal mischief (“damages property in an amount exceeding $100”) or the effect on property required by the crime of first-degree criminal mischief (“damages or destroys property” or “uses, manipulates, arranges or rearranges the property * * * so as to interfere with its efficiency”). Compare ORS 164.345 with ORS 164.354 and ORS 164.365. It provides that damage to property is required to prove the crimes of criminal mischief in the first and second degrees, but not criminal mischief in the third degree.
Instead, the comment merely means that “tampers or interferes” can be shown by an effect on property that includes, but is not limited to, a physical change to the property or “damage.” That is, criminal mischief in the third degree could result from conduct that causes property damage of $100 or less—or, for that matter, no damage at all provided that the conduct otherwise affects the property. The comment is consistent with my reading of the statute in that it recognizes that a violation of the statute could result from conduct that affects property but does not actually cause physical damage to the property.
That scope of the statute was discussed by the criminal law revision committee before the 1971 legislative session. Specifically, Donald L. Paillette, the project director, suggested that the statute
*450“would cover the type of conduct that might not result in a person stealing any type of service or might not result in any damage to the utility or the property but was still interfering with the property in some manner. He said that the section was an attempt to include every protection that existed in the present statutes with respect to interfering with a utility or property without actually obtaining anything.”
Minutes, Criminal Law Revision Commission, May 17,1968, A8. In addition, the following examples were given of conduct to which the proposed section might apply: “Tampering with railroad ties or switches, tampering -with a bicycle so the brakes would [not] work and removing cattle guards so the cattle were turned loose.” Id. The minutes evidence the legislature’s intent that ORS 164.345(1) prohibit the harm that results to a property owner when someone meddles with his or her property so as to disturb or impede its use or function. By analogy to an example given in committee, if defendant had engaged in conduct that resulted in impairing the function of the patrol car, such as draining its gas tank so that it could not be driven, that would be tampering similar to disabling a bicycle’s brakes; merely kicking the inside of the car does not interfere with or tamper with the car’s usefulness to its owner when the kicking does not damage the door or impede the use or function of the car door.
The lead opinion reads the legislative history to show that a violation of ORS 164.345 includes “more than circumstances where property of another is affected or damaged.” 229 Or App at 433 (Edmonds, J., lead opinion). The lead opinion does not identify what those other circumstances are, so it is difficult to assess the legislative history’s support for the unstated proposition. Paillette’s testimony, however, suggests that the scope of the statute “would cover the type of conduct that * * * might not result in damage to * * * property * * * but was still interfering with the property in some manner.” To me, that testimony supports the conclusion that the statute only includes circumstances where property is damaged or affected in some manner. The legislative history is straightforward. ORS 164.345 was intended to proscribe conduct that damaged property or otherwise affected the property in some negative manner.
*451In sum, the plain meaning, statutory context, and legislative history of ORS 164.345 establish that a person “tampers or interferes with property of another” by physically or functionally affecting property in some manner, in particular, by negatively affecting the property’s condition or usefulness. The lead opinion disavows any such needed effect. It concludes that “tampers or interferes” with property only means to cause “an unlawful collision or contact with another’s property” without any effect. 229 Or App at 435 (Edmonds, J., lead opinion). Under that test, then, criminal mischief in the third degree occurs when a person comes in contact or touches property without a privilege to do so and with an intent to cause substantial inconvenience. Under the lead opinion’s construction of ORS 164.345, the crime of criminal mischief in the third degree arguably occurs in the following examples:
1. A bored airplane traveler repeatedly kicks the back of the seat in front of her in order to substantially provoke its occupant, only to discover that the seat is empty;
2. A professional golfer, frustrated with the competitive score of his game, picks up his opponent’s ball in order to surreptitiously throw it into the rough, but changes his mind and returns the ball to its original lie;
3. A middle-school student starts to play the game of “ding-dong-ditch” by repeatedly ringing someone’s doorbell and running away before the person answers, touches the doorbell, but panics and runs away after seeing movement inside of the house;
4. A prankster unsuccessfully tries to close a gate to a road in order to greatly inconvenience an oncoming automobile, but the gate won’t budge.
The crime only requires an intent to cause substantial inconvenience. Under the lead opinion’s construction of the law, the crime of criminal mischief in the third degree is committed by a frustrated plan to manipulate property so as to cause substantial inconvenience.
*452The lead opinion, in short, construes ORS 164.345 to forbid conduct (touching property) that causes no harm, that produces no damage or loss of utility to property, but is criminal only because the touching is done with an intent to cause substantial inconvenience. In my view, that construction of the statute offends two of the purposes of our criminal code as set out in ORS 161.025: to “forbid and prevent conduct that unjustifiably and inexcusably inflicts or threatens substantial harm to individual or public interests,” ORS 161.025(l)(b); and to “give fair warning of the nature of the conduct declared to constitute an offense and of the sentences authorized upon conviction,” ORS 161.025(l)(c). As I say, touching property does not inflict or threaten substantial harm. And there is an enormous amount of relatively benign conduct that an ordinary citizen would be surprised to know was included within the scope of ORS 164.345 and punishable by 30 days in jail, ORS 161.615(3), if ORS 164.345 is construed to proscribe unprivileged touching of property with an intent to cause substantial inconvenience. ORS 164.345 should be construed to be consistent with the purposes of the criminal code, and to require actual harm to property or property use.
I cannot agree that the mere kicking of the inside of a patrol car was an act intended by the legislature to be punished as criminal mischief. Although it may be obnoxious behavior, that act does not impede the use of the patrol car or diminish or change the property for the worse so as to alter its functionality or value. In my view, a person “tampers or interferes” with property under ORS 164.345(1) only by causing a negative effect on the property.
Because no evidence was introduced that defendant’s conduct produced any effect on the patrol car, the trial court erred in refusing to grant defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal on the charge of criminal mischief in the third degree. I dissent from the lead opinion’s conclusion to the contrary.
Brewer, C. J., and Armstrong, J., join in this dissent.

 I agree with the lead opinion that the motion for judgment of acquittal claiming that “[tjhere has been no showing there’s any damage to the vehicle of any kind” and “there’s [not] enough there” is sufficient to preserve a claim that the state failed to prove that the defendant affected the property. A claim that a motion for judgment of acquittal was wrongly decided is preserved when a party identifies for the trial court the relevant legal issue and the appropriate facts that are material to the application of that legal standard and presents an argument to the trial court that is qualitatively similar to the position advanced on appeal. In this case, defendant’s contention was specific to the part of ORS 164.345 that requires that a “person tampers or interferes with property of another,” and not to either of the other two elements of the crime (mens rea and lack of right to interfere). See State v. Shields, 184 Or App 505, 509 n 1, 56 P3d 937 (2002) (argument that one particular element of stalking statute was not proven (threatening communication) was not sufficient to preserve an argument that a different element of the statute (requirement of objectively reasonable alarm) was not shown). Thus, defendant identified the specific legal question presented to the court by the motion—whether he “tamper[ed] or interfere[d]” with the police cruiser.
Second, defendant identified the relevant facts—“kicking a car door and window.” The issue presented to the court was whether the “tampers or interferes” element was satisfied by the specific evidence presented by the state (“kicking a car door and window”)—an issue that was primarily one of law, involving the correct interpretation of the statutory text. Stull v. Hoke, 326 Or 72, 77, 948 P2d 722 (1997) (higher level of judicial engagement when the proper interpretation of a statute is implicated).
Defendant argued that the evidence was insufficient as a matter of law, that there was no “damage * * * of any kind.” The trial court had to construe ORS 164.345 and determine what necessary effect is required by “tampers or interferes” in order to rule on defendant’s motion. Similarly, the prosecution had the opportunity to advance whatever argument it wished on the nature of that necessary effect. We are to determine preservation of error “in light of the purposes of fairness and efficiency that underlie the requirement.” State v. Stevens, 328 Or 116, 122, 970 P2d 215 (1998). It is neither unfair to the trial court or the state nor inefficient for us to decide the discrete question presented below—whether specific facts created a “tampers or interferes with property’ effect.
Finally, the argument presented to the court below was that the state did not show that there was “damage of any kind” to the property, an argument that is not “qualitatively different” than the contention on appeal that the state did not show a sufficient effect on the property by defendant’s conduct. State v. Jackson, 212 Or App 51, 54,157 P3d 239, rev den, 343 Or 206 (2007) (stating test). See also State v. Taylor, 198 Or App 460, 469, 108 P3d 682 (2005) (“the appealing partys statements before the trial court must have alerted the trial judge and opposing counsel to the substance of the position that is advanced on appeal”). In State v. Amaya, 336 Or 616, 629, 89 P3d 1163 (2004), the Supreme Court warned against problems that would result if the “preservation onion is sliced too thinly.” Judge Haselton concludes that defendant’s contention that the “tampers or interferes with property” element of the crime is not satisfied because the identified facts do not show a *445sufficient effect on the property is not preserved merely because defendant described that necessary effect as “damage of any kind,” rather than “bad effect of any kind.” 229 Or App at 439 (Haselton, J., concurring). I believe that Judge Haselton’s analysis slices the preservation onion too thinly.

 “The sections dealing with criminal mischief encompass ‘interfering or tampering’ with property of another and will replace those parts of the present statutes dealing with such activity. (See §§ 145-147 infra).” Commentary to Criminal Law Revision Commission Proposed Criminal Code, Final Draft and Report § 133,141-42 (July 1970). The statutes cited by the commentary include, among others, ORS 164.620, interference with gas and electric appliances; ORS 164.630, interference with telegraphic equipment and service; and ORS 164.635, interference with coin telephones. Another replaced statute, ORS 164.610 (1969), prohibited interference with water rights and appliances. An examination of those replaced statutes suggests that “interference” with property interests or rights included only activities that affected the utility or functioning of the property interest.