Court Opinion

ID: 9741002
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:47:20.324496+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:21.579412
License: Public Domain

*443Liacos, J.
(concurring). I agree with the court’s conclusion that the conviction must be reversed, the verdict set aside, and the case remanded for a new trial due to the failure of the trial judge properly to instruct the jury. I write this separate opinion to comment on the defendant’s claim that his statutory rights under G.L. c. 263, § 5A, (1984 ed.), were violated. I cannot agree with the court’s analysis, nor with its conclusion that there was no violation of the defendant’s rights under that statute. Consequently, I cannot join in section 4 of the court’s opinion.
The court parses the statute so as to render the conduct of the police conformable to the statute. I believe parsing the statute in this fashion subverts the statutory purpose and renders meaningless the right granted by the Legislature. The defendant has an absolute right to be examined by a physician. Commonwealth v. Neal, 392 Mass. 1, 8 n.7 (1984). The obvious reason for examination by a physician of the defendant’s choice is to provide an opportunity for the defendant to obtain his own evidence on the question of his intoxication.1 The court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Andrade, 389 Mass. 874, 881 (1983), recognized that G.L. c. 263, § 5A, “creates a right to obtain evidence that is available for only a short period of time and also seeks to protect this right by requiring that the defendant be informed of its existence.” It is the transient nature of the evidence that makes necessary the requirement that the defendant’s right is “to be examined immediately” (emphasis added). G.L. c. 263, § 5A. The Legislature could not have intended the absurd result that the defendant be informed of his right after its exercise would be futile.2
*444The court places great reliance on the language of the statute providing for notice of his rights to the defendant when he is “booked.” To resolve the ambiguity between the defendant’s right to be examined by his own physician “immediately” and the obligation of the police official to inform him of the right “immediately upon being booked,” the court simply uncouples the two sentences. An understanding of the legislative intent requires an appreciation of the objective of the Legislature. Duggan v. Bay State St. Ry., 230 Mass. 370, 374 (1918).3 As Commonwealth v. Andrade, supra, makes clear, time is crucial in gathering evidence of intoxication.4 Surely, delays, intentional or not, in informing arrested suspects of their statutory rights to have their own physicians gather transient evidence defeat the opportunity of a defendant to gather evidence which might rebut the evidence of the police.
The circumstances involved in the arrest and custody of a person charged with driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor should be considered.in applying the statute. I recognize that the court has stated that the police officers need not “assist” a suspect in obtaining an examination. See Commonwealth v. Alano, 388 Mass. 871, 879 (1983). Once a suspect has been detained, however, the police officers must afford him a reasonable opportunity to exercise his right. The circumstances of each arrest will determine what is reasonable. See Alano, supra at 879-880 (“reasonable opportunity” varies according to circumstances, suggesting that unusual factors may require different actions by police); Commonwealth v. Atencio, 12 Mass. *445App. Ct. 747, 750 (1981) (court considered entire circumstances to determine reasonableness of police conduct).
Application of a standard of “reasonableness” would eliminate cases with the ludicrous result we find here. This defendant was held in custody by a police officer for nearly two hours in the hospital, but was not informed of his right to have an examination by a physician of his choice until he had been removed to the police station. Clearly, a hospital is the kind of place where the defendant’s right to have such an examination could be exercised effectively. The police officer, by not there advising the defendant of his right under § 5A, made a mockery of the expressed legislative intent. In this circumstance, both the “reasonable opportunity” and the legislatively-mandated timely notification were defeated. The court should not close its eyes to the realities of this situation. In my view, the right of the defendant to an immediate medical examination effectively was defeated.
The defendant’s right under G.L. c. 263, § 5A, was violated. The court has not yet determined the appropriate remedy for such a violation. See Andrade, supra at 876-877 & 881 n.2 (dismissal of complaint appropriate absent overwhelming evidence of guilt; question whether suppression of prosecution breathalyzer evidence would be appropriate remedy not decided). Dismissal of the complaint is the appropriate remedy absent overwhelming evidence of guilt. The court has determined on other grounds that this case must be remanded for a new trial. In my view, the other evidence of guilt was sufficiently strong so as not to require dismissal of the complaint. In my view, however, the trial judge should consider a motion to suppress the medical evidence obtained by the police officers, including the breathalyzer evidence, as Commonwealth v. Andrade, supra at 881-882, suggests.

 The defendant does not raise due process objections to his inability to challenge the Commonwealth’s evidence. Cf. Commonwealth v. Neal, supra at 8 (due process requirement of an opportunity to challenge the accuracy of breathalyzer result discharged by statutory right to obtain independent test).

The court’s treatment of the statute also violates the axiom of statutory interpretation that “a statute must be read as a whole and consistently with the legislative intent.” Commonwealth v. Adams, 389 Mass. 265, 273 (1983).

 “It is a principle of general scope that a statute must be interpreted according to the intent of the makers, to be acertained from its several parts and all its words construed by the ordinary and approved usage of the language, unless they have acquired a peculiar meaning in the law, considered in connection with the cause of its enactment, the subject matter to which it applies, the pre-existing state of the common and statutory law, the mischief or imperfection to be remedied, and the main object to be accomplished, to the end that it be given an effect in harmony with common sense and sound reason.” Id.

See 1960 Ann. Survey Mass. Law § 11.5, at 115-117, for a discussion of the inherent problems involved in linking the obligation of providing notice of the defendant’s right to the time of his booking.