STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
TERRELL BURDETTE, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 2002-10-04
No. 2D01-3981
BLUE, C.J., and CASANUEVA, J., Concur.
826 So. 2d 1092 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (2002) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

The State appealed a trial court's decision declaring a vehicle impoundment statute unconstitutional as applied to a DUI offender. The appellate court reversed, holding that the statute did not apply to the defendant's circumstances because the leased vehicle had been returned and the defendant owned no registered vehicles, thus making the constitutional analysis unnecessary.


Holding

The impoundment provision did not apply because the statute requires impoundment only of vehicles 'that was operated by or in the actual control of the defendant or any one vehicle registered in the defendant's name,' and here the lease had expired with no unexpired term remaining and Burdette owned no registered vehicles. Therefore, the constitutional challenge was unnecessary to address.


Headnotes

[1] A court should not address the constitutionality of a statute when the statute does not apply to the facts of the case.

[2] A statute requiring vehicle impoundment as a condition of probation for a DUI offense does not apply when the vehicle driven has no unexpired lease term and the defendant…

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Key Quotes

“The court must also, as a condition of probation, order the impoundment or immobilization of the vehicle that was operated by or in the actual control of the defendant or any one vehicle registered in the defendant's name at the time of impoundment or immobilization, for a period of 10 days or for the unexpired term of any lease or rental agreement that expires within 10 days.”

The statutory language governing impoundment provisions that the court interpreted to exclude vehicles with expired leases.

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Facts & Procedural History

Burdette pleaded no contest to driving under the influence. The trial court ordered a ten-day impoundment of the vehicle as a condition of probation. …

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Opinion of the Court
FULMER, Judge.

FULMER, Judge.

The State appeals from an order granting Burdette’s motion to declare the impoundment provision of section 316.193(6)(a), Florida Statutes (2000), unconstitutional as applied.1 We reverse because under our interpretation of section 316.193(6)(a), the statute did not apply and no impoundment could be ordered in Bur-dette’s case. Therefore, the trial court should not have considered the constitutionality of the statute.

Burdette pleaded' no contest to the charge of driving under the influence (DUI). At sentencing, as a condition of probation the trial court ordered a ten-day impoundment of the vehicle driven by Bur-dette, pursuant to section 316.193(6)(a). Burdette later moved the court to declare the vehicle impoundment provision unconstitutional on the grounds that, as applied, the statute violated Burdette’s right to due process and equal protection. The trial court held a hearing on the motion, at which Burdette presented undisputed testimony that the vehicle he had been driving at the time of the DUI offense was owned by Toyota Motor Credit and had been “a company vehicle.” The-lease on the vehicle had since expired, and Bur-dette did not own or possess any vehicles. The trial court granted Burdette’s motion.

Section 316.193(6)(a), which pertains to the penalties for a first DUI, provides, in part:

The court must also, as a condition of probation, order the impoundment or immobilization of the vehicle that was operated by or in the actual control of the defendant or any one vehicle registered in the defendant’s name at the time of impoundment or immobilization, for a period of 10 days or for the unexpired term of any lease or rental agreement that expires within 10 days.

At a hearing below, it appears that the parties and the trial court assumed this statutory provision required the trial court to order impoundment as a condition of probation even though the lease agreement on the vehicle had expired. The argument of the parties centered on whether it was constitutional to require a probationer to arrange for the impound ment of a leased vehicle that had been returned to the owner. Under our reading of the statute, the impoundment provision was not applicable in this case because the vehicle Burdette was driving at the time of the DUI offense had no unexpired term remaining on the lease and Burdette had no vehicles registered in his name. The trial court erred in construing the statute to require impoundment as a condition of probation under these circumstances. And, because the statute does not apply to Burdette, we need not address the merits of the constitutional challenge.

Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s order and remand with directions that the impoundment condition be stricken from Burdette’s probation order. Reversed and remanded with directions.

BLUE, C.J., and CASANUEVA, J., Concur. . Because the county court declared a state statute unconstitutional, we have jurisdiction. See State v. Coyle, 718 So. 2d 218 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998); State v. Freund, 561 So. 2d 305 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990).


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Citator

Cited By

  • Sullivan v. Landon Cole Sapp, 866 So. 2d 28 (Fla. 2004)
    …. 170, 49 So. 124, 125 (1909); Ex parte Bailey, 39 Fla. 734, 23 So. 552, 555 (1897); Franklin County v. State ex rel. Patton, 24 Fla. 55, 3 So. 471, 472 (1888). . See, e.g., M.Z. v. State, 747 So. 2d 978, 980 (Fla. 1st DCA 1999); State v. Burdette, 826 So. 2d 1092, 1094 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002); Dep't of Revenue v. Good, 398 So. 2d 938, 939 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981); In re Forfeiture of One Cessna 337H Aircraft, 475 So. 2d 1269, 1270-71 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985); Crawford v. State, 662 So. 2d 1016, 1017 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995). .…

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