Court Opinion

ID: 9676269
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:19:41.131601+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:46.651736
License: Public Domain

LIMBAUGH, Judge,
concurring in result.
I write separately to express my disagreement with the rationale stated by the majority, to offer an alternative rationale based on my reading of § 577.041 in its entirety, and to object to the adoption of an impractical actual prejudice standard.
To be sure, the arresting officer’s warning set out in § 577.041.1, RSMo 1994, when read in isolation from other parts of the statute, expressly and unequivocally requires that an arrestee be informed that his or her driver’s license shall be immediately revoked upon refusal to take the breathalyzer test. The notion that one’s driver’s license is immediately revoked, however, is qualified by the remaining portions of § 577.041.1 and by the provisions of subsections 2 and 3. Under *199these provisions, the arresting officer, in the case of a refusal, is directed to take possession of the arrestee’s license, serve a notice of revocation upon the arrestee, and issue a temporary driving permit valid for 15 days. The arresting officer is then required to make a sworn report to the Director of Revenue, and upon receipt of the report, the Director is then obligated to revoke the license. The officer’s mere taking possession of the license does not effect a revocation, and only days or perhaps weeks later, when the Director of Revenue formally revokes the license, is the revocation perfected. In fact, there is no provision for a license to be “immediately” revoked, because neither the arresting officer nor the Director of Revenue is given the authority to do so. Moreover, the fact that the arrestee is given a 15-day driving permit is alone sufficient proof that there is no “immediate” revocation.
Read as a whole, the statute is internally inconsistent. Although the arresting officer is required to inform an arrestee that the revocation shall be made “immediately” upon refusal to take the test, that revocation is not immediate, and instead, the arrestee is issued a 15-day temporary permit. Had the arresting officer in this case used the word “immediately” in his warning, he would have misrepresented the true consequences set out in the statute. Furthermore, to have used the word “immediately” in the warning would have rendered the statute an absurdity. In my view, the qualifying terms of the statute effectively delete the word “immediately.” Accordingly, it was not impermissible for the arresting officer himself to omit the word “immediately” from the warning because the warning as given was accurate.
The majority not only disregards the other provisions of § 577.041, but also adopts an “actual prejudice test” that is practically unworkable. On the one hand, the State will claim that the absolute certainty of the revocation, rather than the timing of the revocation, is the real import of the warning, the true basis on which the arrestee’s decision rests. On the other hand, what drivers, once sobered up and advised by counsel, will ever admit to not having been prejudiced by the failure to include the word “immediately” in the warning? What drivers would fail to claim that they would certainly have agreed to take the test had they known that their driver’s licenses were to be revoked on the spot? They will surely explain that an immediate revocation versus a revocation days, weeks, or months later would have made a substantial difference in their decision. At the least, they would say that the prospect of a later revocation would give them time to make other transportation arrangements with their employer, with their family, and with others. Under these circumstances, I foresee the trial judge’s determination of prejudice to amount to little more than speculation.
As stated, in my view, it was not error for the arresting officer to omit the word “immediately” from the warning given to the arres-tee; and therefore, I would reverse the judgment of the trial court solely on that ground.