Court Opinion

ID: 9606778
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:52:31.789419+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:35.399012
License: Public Domain

Littlejohn, Justice
(dissenting) :
I respectfully dissent and would affirm the order of the lower court. The right to bring this action is purely statutory and, in order to receive the benefits of the statute, the same must be fully complied with.
I agree with the lower court, which held that the filing of the report was not notification to “some appropriate police authority,” within the contemplation of the statute. Reports such as the plaintiff filed have been required for many years prior to -the Safety Responsibility Act, which gives to an insured party the right to bring a “John Doe” action.
The South Carolina State Highway Department was created by § 33-21, Code of Laws of South Carolina (1962). It reads as follows:
“Establishment and general functions.- — -There is hereby established, as an administrative agency of the State government, the South Carolina State Highway Department. Its function and purposes shall be the systematic planning, construction, maintenance and operation of the State highway system, the regulation of traffic thereon, the administration and enforcement of traffic, driver and motor vehicle laws and other laws relating to such subjects and the performance of such other duties and matters as may be delegated to it pursuant to law.”
The South Carolina State Highway Patrol was created by § 46-851, which reads as follows:
“South Carolina Highway Patrol; appointment and termination of -employment. — The law enforcement division of *351the State Highway Department shall be named and known as the ‘South Carolina Highway Patrol’ and shall consist of such patrolmen, officers, agents and employees as the Department may deem necessarily proper for the enforcement of the traffic and other .related laws, the enforcement of which is devolved upon the Department. Such officers and patrolmen shall be commissioned by the Governor upon the recommendation of the Chief Highway Commissioner. Such commissions may be terminated at the pleasure of the Chief Highway Commissioner.”
The duties of the Patrol are outlined in § 46-854, which reads in part as follows:
“Duties and powers of patrolmen. — The patrolmen and officers of the .South Carolina Highway Patrol shall patrol the highways of the State for the purpose of enforcing the laws of the State relative to highway traffic and motor vehicles. . . . Such officers and patrolmen shall also have the same power and authority held by deputy sheriffs for the enforcement of the criminal laws of the State. They shall remain on the highways, roads and streets at all times while in the performance of their duties, only leaving the highways, roads or streets to pursue an offender who could not be apprehended upon the highways, roads or streets.”
Accordingly, it is seen that the South Carolina Highway Patrol is a law enforcement authority and, certainly, notification to a member of the South Carolina Highway Patrol would be sufficient compliance with the statute.
Even as there is within the South Carolina State Highway Department a Patrol division, there is also a Safety Responsibility Section, which is an informational and administrative and statistical operation.
The form which the plaintiff used to report this collision to the South Carolina State Highway Department, in keeping with § 46-327 of the Code, gives instructions to the one who files the report as follows:
*352“The driver or owner of a vehicle which is in any manner involved in an accident resulting in total property damages to an apparent extent of one hundred dollars or more or in death or bodily injury, shall complete and send this form to STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT, SAFETY RESPONSIBILITY SECTION, P. O. DRAWER 1498, COLUMBIA, S. C., within five days of the accident.”
The Safety Responsibility Section within the Highway Department is no more “some appropriate police authority” than is the Motor Vehicle Licensing Division, or that department charged with road construction.
The report is actually confidential and is certainly not designed to alert any law enforcement officer to investigate an alleged collision.
Section 46-750.34 of the Code requires, as a right to recover, that the matter be reported “to some appropriate police authority.” The Safety Responsibility Section of the South Carolina State Highway Department, to which the report was sent, is not an appropriate police authority; as a matter of fact, it is not a police authority at all. Independent of the Uninsured Motorist Law and the Safety Responsibility Act, these reports are required.
I would affirm the lower court.