Court Opinion

ID: 9732462
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:21:57.548765+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:28.060789
License: Public Domain

*788Spencer and. Boslaugh. J.J.,
dissenting.
Defendant was arrested when he was proceeding to a farm for the purpose of loading a stack of loose alfalfa hay. We are unable to agree with the majority opinion that the words of the statute are plain, direct, and unambiguous, and that no interpretation is needed to ascertain their meaning.
Actually, when the attention of the Senator who proposed the legislation was called to a possibility of conflict in interpretation, he wrote the Attorney General with reference to such interpretation. We quote the following reply to him dated February 28, 1966: “We have your letter of February 25, 1966, with reference to the legality of certain hay moving equipment owned by a Mr. Jim Harmon of Loup City. As we understand the situation, based upon the contents of your letter, Mr. Harmon states that he was advised by officers of the scale section of the Highway Department to the effect that although the law did permit him to transport unbaled hay by means of a vehicle the total outside width of which, including the load thereon, does not exceed twenty feet, that when such vehicle was empty the same could not be operated over public roads if the width thereof exceeded the basic eight foot maximum. That statement does not represent a correct interpretation of the law; and either Mr. Harmon misunderstood the officers, or the officers are misapplying the provisions of Section 39-719, as amended by L.B. 713.”
We quote the above merely to suggest that the statute is not as plain and unambiguous as the majority opinion suggests. This being a penal statute, it should be strictly construed. It seems obvious to us that a truck 8 feet in width could not conceivably haul unbaled livestock forage 20 feet in width. The only reasonable construction which can be put upon the statute is that in the excepted instance the truck is not restricted to the 8-foot maximum. The truck herein was 13 feet 9 inches. Legislative Bill 857, which will become effective December 25, *7891969, will permit the use of unloaded vehicles 14 feet in width.