Court Opinion

ID: 9520071
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:30:57.325107+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:45:30.095941
License: Public Domain

RILEY, Judge,
dissenting with separate opinion.
I respectfully dissent,. The majority has chosen to author its opinion without telling the factual history of the real people identified by the Appellants-Plaintiffs that are being hassled by the BMV's policy shift. Additionally, they have chosen to ignore Indiana law controlling administrative actions that an ageney may not by its rules and regulations add to or detract from the law as enacted, nor may it by rule extend its powers beyond those conferred upon it by law. Lee Alan Bryant Health Care Facilities, Inc. v. Hamilton, 788 N.E.2d 495, 500 (Ind.Ct.App.2003), clarified on reh'g, 793 N.E.2d 229 (Ind.Ct.App.2003).
As of April 8, 2008, 15,832 persons were notified by the BMV that their names on the BMV records did not match their names on file with SSA and they were subject to revocation. Among those per*185sons were Lynn Leone (Leone), Omari Vaden (Vaden), and Catherine Goff (Goff),
Leone is an adult resident of Indiana who has been licensed to drive as Lyn Leone for more than forty years. She was given the name Mary Lyn Leone at birth and this is the name listed on her birth certificate and Social Security records. However, since she became an adult she has consistently used the first name of Lyn. As a result she is an attorney admitted to the practice of law in Indiana under the name of Lyn Leone; she has consistently paid taxes under the name of Lyn Leone; she has bought and sold property under the name of Lyn Leone; all of her bank accounts and credit cards are maintained in the name of Lyn Leone, and she is registered to vote as Lyn Leone. There has been no suggestion that she uses the name Lyn for any fraudulent purpose. In September of 2007, Leone renewed her drivers license in the name of Lyn Leone. Her drivers license states that it is valid until 2011. Nevertheless, she was notified that her license was being terminated because the name on the license did not match that in the records of the SSA.
Vaden is an adult resident of Indiana. At birth he was given the first name of William. However, for more than twenty years he has used the first name of Omari. He has paid taxes as Omari Vaden, signed contracts as Omari Vaden, registered to vote as Omari Vaden, and used that name on his banking and financial records. There has been no suggestion that he changed his name for any fraudulent purpose. Vaden has never officially informed the SSA of his name change; however, his annual earning summaries from the SSA reflect that he has paid taxes as Omari Vaden.
Goff has been married for fifteen years and uses the surname of her husband, Michael Goff When Goff first obtained her license from the BMV after her marriage, she showed the BMV personnel her marriage certificate that proved she had married Michael Goff, and the BMV issued her a license in the name of Catherine Goff. Her current license is valid until 2012. She has now been informed by the BMV that her license is being terminated because there is an inconsistency between her name with the BMV records and the name associated with her SSN by the SSA.
The majority relies upon the testimony of Detective Eads to find a "rational basis" for the BMV's ultra vires acts. However, the law as codified by our legislature is that a person applying for a drivers license or identification card must provide the BMY with their "full legal name." See 1C. §§ 9-24-11-5(a@)(1) and 9-24-16-3(b)(1). It has been the long standing law of our state that:
a full name consists of one christian or given name, and one surname or patronymic. The two, using the christian name first and the surname last, constitute the legal name of the person. Any one may have as many middle names or initial as are given to him, or as he chooses to take; they do not affect his legal name.
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No person is bound to accept his patronymic as a surpame, nor his christian name as a given name, though the custom to do so is almost universal amongst English-speaking people, who have inherited the common law. A person may be known by any name in which he may contract, and in such name he may sue and be sued, and by such name may be criminally punished; and when a person is known by several names-by one as well as another-he may contract in either, and sue and be sued by the one in which he contracts, and may be punished criminally by either.
*186Schofield v. Jennings, 68 Ind. 232, 234-35, 1879 WL 5847 (1879). As such, Leone, Vaden, and Goff provided their "full legal names" to the BMV. If the BMV now thinks that in the day and age of identity theft that applicants for drivers licenses or identification cards should provide their name as it appears in the SSA database, then the BMV has the opportunity to approach our legislature and seek an amendment to Indiana Code sections 9-24-11-5(a)(1) and 9-24-16-3(b)(1).