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State v. Chisholm11/16/1999
Filed: 16 November 1999
Appeal by the State of North Carolina and Carteret County from judgment entered 18 September 1998 by Judge Paul Quinn in District Court, Carteret County. Heard in the Court of Appeals 26 August 1999.
North Carolina allows a driver's vehicle to be seized and forfeited if the driver violates the State's impaired driving and license revocation laws. In this case, the district court found that the seizure and forfeiture statutes were unconstitutional under both the United States Constitution and the North Carolina Constitution. We, however, uphold the constitutionality of the seizure and forfeiture statutes; accordingly, we reverse the decision of the district court.
I. Facts and Procedural History
On 19 April 1998, an officer charged the defendant Bruce Chisholm with driving while impaired in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-138.1 (1993) and driving while his license was revoked in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-28 (Supp. 1997). The officer seized and impounded the vehicle driven by Chisholm under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-28.3 (Supp. 1997).
Before recent amendments, N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 20-28.2 through 20-28.7 (Supp. 1997) (hereafter the "DWI Seizure Statutes") provided for the seizure and possible forfeiture of any vehicle driven by a person under the influence while his license was revoked as the result of a prior impaired driving incident. The seized vehicle would be towed and stored until the driver's hearing. If the district court dismissed the charges or found the driver not guilty of impaired driving while his license was revoked, the vehicle would be released. If the driver was found guilty, the vehicle would be forfeited--either kept by the school board of the county in which the vehicle was seized, or sold.
The DWI Seizure Statutes had an "innocent owner" defense which allowed a non-operator owner of a seized vehicle to regain his vehicle regardless of whether the defendant was found guilty or not guilty. An "innocent owner" was an owner who either did not know that the driver of the vehicle had his license revoked, or did know about the revocation but did not give permission for the defendant to use the car. An innocent owner could regain possession of his car before the defendant's trial, but only by proving his "innocence," paying all storage and towing fees, and filing a bond worth twice the value of the seized vehicle. If the defendant was found not guilty, a seized vehicle would be released to its owner, along with any fees paid for the pre-trial release of the car.
In this case, the officer seized and impounded the vehicle driven by defendant Chisholm under the authority of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-28.3. The car, a 1990 Ford, belonged to the petitioner, Lummie Dillard, who moved in the cause to have the car returned to him without payment of towing and storage fees. He argued that the DWI Seizure Statutes were unconstitutional as applied to him as well as to lienholders and others similarly situated.
Following a hearing in the District Court of Carteret County, the trial Judge agreed with Mr. Dillard and found that the DWI Seizure Statutes were unconstitutional in violation of the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 19 of the North Carolina Constitution. Accordingly, the trial Judge released the vehicle to Mr. Dillard. The State appealed from that determination to this Court.
Since the filing of this appeal, the General Assembly has amended the DWI Seizure Statutes to allow a faster and easier return of a vehicle to a non-driver owner. For instance, the owner does not have to prove his "innocence" befo
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