Court Opinion

ID: 9513415
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:35:28.322593+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:51.370988
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
[¶ 25] Benjamin Egan’s address was effectively changed on August 18 or 19, 1997, when his mother moved from that address which Egan also listed as his 'address. At the time section 39-06-20, N.D.C.C. provided:
Whenever a person after ... receiving an operator’s license ... moves from the address named in the application or in the license ... issued to that person ... that person shall within ten days thereafter notify the director in writing or in person of that person’s old and new address....
[¶ 26] Egan gave no notice, oral or written, of his change of address within the ten day period. He did go to the Department’s Minot office and was told his license was not under suspension after, presumably, he asked as to the status of his license because he was concerned about the effect of his conviction in South Dakota for driving while under the influence of alcohol. While at the Minot office, Egan apparently did not tell the Department about the address change which took place some 9 or so days before.
[¶27] The Department’s notice to Egan was sent prior to the expiration of the period which Egan had to notify the Department of his change in address. Without evidence to the contrary, we should not assume the Department would have failed to send another notice if they received a timely, change of address from Egan.
[¶ 28] I do not agree with the majority that this is a hybrid between State v. Knittel, 308 N.W.2d 379 (N.D.1981) and State v. Johnson, 139 N.W.2d 157 (N.D.1965). In Knittel, the driver had not changed his address. In Johnson, as the majority notes, the court said that if the driver failed to notify the Department of his change of address within ten days after the change “he cannot complain if the notice which was mailed to him at the address shown on his application and his license was not addressed correctly.” Johnson, at 159. In Johnson, the Syllabus by the Court4 states:
1. Where a defendant is served with order of suspension of his driver’s license by the mailing of copy of such order to him at the address shown on his application for driver’s license or address shown on such license, he cannot complain on the ground that he no longer lives at that address. The law requires the holder of a driver’s license to notify the Highway Commissioner in writing of any change of address within ten days after such change. See. 39-06-20, N.D.C.C.
[¶29] The relevant facts here are the same. Egan failed to notify the Department of his change of address within ten days. Although the majority attempts to distinguish Johnson on the basis the decision in that case does not specifically state when the defendant changed address in relation to the Department mailing the order for suspension, I believe that is irrelevant as Egan did not give notice of his change of address within ten days as required by law. Because he failed to do this he cannot complain that the notice did not contain his current address and he therefore did not receive it.
[¶ 30] I would affirm the decision of the trial court.
[¶ 31] Gerald W. VandeWalle, C.J.

. At the time the opinion was written in 1965, Section 102 of the North Dakota Constitution required the Court to "prepare a syllabus of the points adjudicated in each case ... prefixed to the published reports of the case.” Section 102 was repealed by art. amd. 97, approved September 7, 1976 (S.L.1975, ch. 615, § 2; 1977, ch. 599).