David Wayne Easterday v. Commissioner of Public Safety
Minnesota Court of Appeals
David Wayne Easterday v. Commissioner of Public Safety
Opinion
This opinion will be unpublished and
may not be cited except as provided by
Minn. Stat. § 480A.08, subd. 3 (2014).
STATE OF MINNESOTA
IN COURT OF APPEALS
A15-0134
David Wayne Easterday, petitioner,
Appellant,
vs.
Commissioner of Public Safety,
Respondent
Filed September 14, 2015
Affirmed
Ross, Judge
Wright County District Court
File No. 86-CV-14-3803
Charles A. Ramsay, Daniel J. Koewler, Ramsay Law Firm, PLLC, Roseville, Minnesota
(for appellant)
Lori Swanson, Attorney General, William J. Young, Jeffrey S. Bilcik, Assistant
Attorneys General, St. Paul, Minnesota (for respondent)
Considered and decided by Peterson, Presiding Judge; Ross, Judge; and Klaphake,
Judge.
Retired judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals, serving by appointment pursuant to
Minn. Const. art. VI, § 10.
UNPUBLISHED OPINION
ROSS, Judge
The commissioner of public safety revoked David Easterday’s driver’s license
after a blood test indicated that he drove while impaired. Easterday petitioned the district
court to review the revocation, and the commissioner urged the district court to dismiss
the petition because Easterday failed to file the petition within the required 30 days of
receiving notice of the revocation. Easterday’s attorney acknowledged that a certificate of
mailing reflected that the notice had been sent long before Easterday petitioned for
review. The district court dismissed his petition, and we affirm, because it was untimely
filed.
FACTS
Police arrested David Easterday for impaired driving in late March 2014. He
submitted to a blood test, which revealed the presence of a controlled substance. The
commissioner of public safety therefore revoked Easterday’s driver’s license.
Easterday filed a petition for judicial review of that decision on July 18, 2014.
The commissioner moved the district court to dismiss the petition for lack of jurisdiction,
maintaining that Easterday missed the statutory deadline that passed 30 days after
Easterday received the commissioner’s notice of the revocation. The commissioner took
the position that notice mailed by the department of public safety “is deemed received
three days after mailing to the last known address of the person.” See Minn. Stat.
§ 169A.52, subd. 6 (2014). The commissioner declared that the notice was mailed to
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Easterday on May 28, 2014, making May 31 the effective receipt date and rendering the
July 18 petition untimely.
The district court conducted a hearing at which Easterday claimed he never
received the notice. He claimed that he knew his license was revoked only because he
had been detained by police and told about it. He did not contend that the address on the
notice was not his; he maintained only that neither he nor his parents (who also live at the
address) ever received the notice. But Easterday’s attorney acknowledged that the
evidence supports the commissioner’s assertion that the notice had been mailed on May
28: “We have a certification from Joan Kopcinski -- she’s the director -- indicating that it
was mailed on -- ‘it’ being the revocation order -- mailed on May 28, 2014.” For reasons
unknown to us, the certified document referred to was not included in the district court’s
record.
The district court found that Easterday received the revocation notice on May 31,
2014, and that he did not file his petition by the statutory deadline of June 30, 2014. It
granted the commissioner’s motion to dismiss the untimely petition for lack of
jurisdiction.
Easterday appeals.
DECISION
Easterday argues on appeal that the district court lacked evidence to determine
whether it had jurisdiction to review the revocation. Revocation of a driver’s license
becomes effective when the commissioner “notifies the person of the intention to revoke,
disqualify, or both, and of revocation or disqualification.” Minn. Stat. § 169A.52, subd. 6
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(2014). “If mailed, the notice and order of revocation or disqualification is deemed
received three days after mailing to the last known address of the person.” Id. Once a
person receives the revocation notice, he has 30 days to petition for judicial review.
Minn. Stat. § 169A.53, subd. 2(a) (2014). Meeting this 30-day filing deadline is
necessary to maintain the court’s jurisdiction to review. Plocher v. Comm’r of Pub.
Safety, 681 N.W.2d 698, 701 (Minn. App. 2004).
Easterday insists that the finding that he received the notice on May 31 lacks
evidentiary support. He is correct that the commissioner did not move into evidence the
document that reflected the May 28 mailing date. But a party may admit to a fact, and
Easterday’s attorney acknowledged on the record that he possessed an “under oath”
“certification from Joan Kopcinski -- she’s the director -- indicating that it was mailed on
-- ‘it’ being the revocation order -- mailed on May 28, 2014.” Although the attorney was
not testifying as a fact witness and a lawyer’s assertions are not evidence, we see no clear
error here. The lawyer, acting as an officer of the court and representing Easterday,
acknowledged an apparently undisputed fact based on an expressly referenced and quoted
certified document. The lawyer effectively conceded on Easterday’s behalf to the
apparently noncontroversial and documentarily supported fact of the May 28 mailing
date. The district court’s finding is therefore not clearly erroneous.
Easterday’s only remaining argument is that his alleged nonreceipt implicates his
due-process rights. But the process of mailing a revocation notice alone meets due
process regardless of whether the notice is actually received. See McShane v. Comm’r of
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Pub. Safety, 377 N.W.2d 479, 482–83 (Minn. App. 1985), review denied (Minn. Jan. 23,
1986). We see no error in the district court’s dismissal.
Affirmed.
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Reference
- Status
- Unpublished