Court Opinion

ID: 9628683
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:29:10.873539+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:30.881106
License: Public Domain

Mallery, J.
(dissenting) — The'city’s motive in passing a drunken-driving ordinance identical with state law was *120to enable it to try drunken-driving cases committed within the city in the city police court rather than in a justice court and, thus, keep the fines collected for such offenses.
The majority opinion permits the city to achieve this purpose, but to do so it had to approve the bargain rates which the ordinance gives to defendants whose offenses are committed within the city. The rule of this case would be a revenue measure had it been enacted by the legislature, as it should have been, because it relates to sources of city revenue which are all too scarce these days. Assuming that the cities ought to be allowed to keep the fines derived from drunken-driving cases within the city, it is still the prerogative of the legislature to allocate such fines to them. This court can accomplish such a purpose only by striking down the constitutional right relating to equality of persons before the law.
State law requires the revocation of drivers’ licenses regardless of whether the offense of drunken driving is committed in or out of a city. The fact that the appellant committed his offense in a city and was charged in a municipal court with a violation of a city ordinance is, therefore, no reason for his keeping his driver’s license, as in this case.
State law, RCW 46.56.010, prescribed penalties for drunken driving, which are augmented for the second and subsequent convictions of the offense. There is a maximum penalty of one thousand dollars and a year in the county jail. RCW 46.08.190 (Laws of 1955, chapter 393, § 4, p. 1702) provides:
“Every justice of the peace and police court judge shall have concurrent jurisdiction with superior court judges of the state for all violations of the provisions of this title and may impose any punishment provided therefor.” (Italics mine.)
The effect of this provision is that an enlarged jurisdiction limited to offenses against the state motor vehicle act is conferred upon justices of the peace and police judges. The enlarged jurisdiction, however, does not apply to the same offense when charged as violations of city ordinances. The fact is that penalties which first-class cities can impose *121for violation of city ordinances are considerably less than those pertaining to the state motor vehicle act and are, of course, governed by general law.
RCW 35.22.280 provides:
“Any city of the first class shall have power
“(36) To provide for the punishment of all disorderly conduct, and of all practices dangerous to public health or safety, and to make all regulations necessary for the preservation of public morality, health, peace, and good order within its limits, and to provide for the arrest, trial, and punishment of all persons charged with violating any of the ordinances of said city; but such punishment shall in no case exceed the punishment provided by the laws of the state for misdemeanors; . . . ” (Italics mine.)
Specifically, RCW 9.92.030 fixes the punishment for the misdemeanors referred to in RCW 35.22.280, supra, at ninety days’ imprisonment in the county jail or a fine of not more than two hundred fifty dollars.
It thus appears that, under a city ordinance, the municipal court cannot impose as severe a penalty for the offense here in question as that which is applicable for the same offense when it is charged as a violation of the identically worded state law.
Art XI, § 11, of the state constitution, provides:
“Any county, city, town or township may make and enforce within its limits all such local police, sanitary and other regulations as are not in conflict with general laws.” (Italics mine.)
The disparity of penalties between the offenses under the ordinance and under the state statute constitutes a conflict within the purview of the constitutional provision. In this connection, I am referring not only to the longer imprisonment and higher fines prescribed by state statutes, but also to the state’s exclusive power to revoke drivers’ licenses for the offense in question.
Experience has shown that such great disparity in the penalties which different courts are able to impose inevitably results in improper pressures being put upon public officers and courts by offenders who seek to minimize their *122punishment by having their case disposed of in a court limited to the smaller penalties. The implementation of such a choice constitutes a denial of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution. As the United States Supreme Court said in Pace v. Alabama, 106 U. S. 583, 27 L. Ed. 207, 1 S. Ct. 637:
“ . . . Equality of protection under the laws implies . . . that in the administration of criminal justice he [any person] shall not be subjected, for the same offense, to any greater or different punishment. ...”
I dissent.