Court Opinion

ID: 9579828
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:58:58.972579+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:35:48.854242
License: Public Domain

VERNON R. PEDERSON,
Surrogate Judge, dissenting.
When I take into consideration: 1) the volume of appeals which arise out of the “implied consent” statutes (NDCC ch. 39-20) and 2) the vast variety of opinions expressed thereon by the justices over the years, I quickly reach the conclusion that it would be absurd for the Legislative Assembly to impose upon law enforcement officers, under circumstances such as we find in this case, a prerequisite obligation to contact a child’s parent or guardian, to explain the cause for the custody of the child and to explain the implied consent chemical testing requirements.
Because the legislature does not intend absurd results, it must have intended those words to be “hortatory and precatory but not mandatory.” See, e.g., Dathe v. Wildrose School District No. 91, 217 N.W.2d 781, Syl. 1 (N.D.1974).
In order to interpret the words in section 39-20-01, NDCC, as mandatory and not “hortatory and precatory,” the majority opinion creates a new and exotic use for the exclusionary rule (the rule that throws the baby out with the bath water) and which frustrates the purpose and the administration of this public safety statute.
Proceedings under the implied consent law which relate to the suspension or revocation of a driver’s license are civil in ñatee and a refusal to submit to chemical test until counsel is consulted is an unreasonable refusal. There is no right to counsel in a civil proceeding. See Agnew v. Hjelle, 216 N.W.2d 291 (N.D.1974).
Use of the public highways is not an absolute right. It is, instead, a privilege which persons enjoy subject to the control of the state in its valid exercise of police power. See State v. Kouba, 319 N.W.2d 161 (N.D. 1982).
Procedural fairness provides the required minimal due process. Kobilansky v. Lifftig, 358 N.W.2d 781 (N.D.1984).
A driver’s license is not a “title of nobility.” State v. Larson, 419 N.W.2d 897 (N.D.1988).
The Administrative Agencies Practice Act defines the due process required in driver’s license suspensions for refusal to submit to the chemical testing for blood-alcohol content. Samdahl v. N.D. Dept. of Transp. Director, 518 N.W.2d 714 (N.D.1994).
Section 39-20-01, NDCC, provides that any person who operates a motor vehicle upon a highway is deemed to have given consent to a chemical test. Logic dictates that no further consent is required. A refusal constitutes a withdrawal of that statutory consent.
*264No constitutional questions, federal or state, have been properly raised in this case. See State v. Beaton, 516 N.W.2d 645 (N.D. 1994), and specifically the dissent of Justice Levine at page 650.
Caught spray painting in Singapore, a teenager can get his butt caned. For driving in North Dakota while drunk, the law might tattle to his Mommy. What’s happening to our civilization, anyway? The judgment of the district court should be affirmed and the appeal from the administrative determination should be dismissed.