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Parodi v. Wyoming Dept. of Transp.11/7/1997
For Wyoming drivers whose licenses have been suspended, Wyo. Stat. § 31-7-105(f) (1994) empowers the Wyoming Department of Transportation to grant limited driving privileges once in any five year period. Appellant urges us to read Wyo. Stat. § 31-7-105(e) as enabling a hearing examiner to ignore that five year restriction upon a showing of "good cause." Hearing examiners, however, cannot order the Wyoming Department of Transportation to violate the law. Therefore, we affirm the hearing examiner's denial of appellant's request for a second grant of limited driving privileges within five years.
I. ISSUE
Appellant, Edward Lee Parodi (Parodi), identifies a single issue:
Whether or not the limitations upon the issuance of limited driving privileges in the form of a probationary driver's license as set forth in W.S. § 31-7-105(f) apply to Hearing Examiners with the Office of Administrative Hearings who are acting under W.S. § 31-7-105(e).
Appellee, the Wyoming Department of Transportation (the Department), articulates essentially the same question:
May a Hearing Examiner modify the suspension of a driver's license by granting a driver limited driving privileges when the driver has received limited driving privileges in a five (5) year period?
II. FACTS
Parodi was granted limited driving privileges by the Department when his driver's license was suspended in 1993. On May 10, 1995, Parodi was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. Because his blood alcohol content proved to be over .10%, the Department issued notice of a proposed ninety-day suspension of Parodi's license to drive pursuant to Wyo. Stat. § 31-6-102 (1994).
Parodi did not contest his prior receipt of limited driving privileges, nor did he dispute the more immediate suspension of his license for driving under the influence of alcohol. He did, however, request and receive a contested case hearing before a hearing examiner from the Office of Administrative Hearings to argue that Wyo. Stat. § 31-7-105(e) empowers a hearing examiner to modify a suspension more than once within a five year period upon a showing of "good cause."
Noting, anecdotally, that he and other hearing examiners have consistently held that the limitations set forth in Wyo. Stat. § 31-7-105(f) do restrict a hearing examiner's authority to modify suspension of a driver's license pursuant to Wyo. Stat. § 31-7-105(e), the hearing examiner upheld the Department's refusal to grant Parodi a second modified suspension within five years. The district court affirmed the decision and this appeal timely followed.
III. STANDARD OF REVIEW
Absent evidentiary dispute, the standard of review for contested case hearings is simply stated as whether an agency's conclusions are in accordance with the law. Amoco Production Co. v. Wyoming State Bd. of Equalization, 797 P.2d 552, 554 (Wyo. 1990) (citing Employment Sec. Com'n of Wyoming v. Western Gas Processors, Ltd., 786 P.2d 866, 871 (Wyo. 1990)).
This court interprets statutes by inquiring into the ordinary and obvious meaning of the words employed by the legislature according to the manner in which those words are arranged. Sheridan Commercial Park, Inc. v. Briggs, 848 P.2d 811, 815 (Wyo. 1993). Statutes amenable to conflicting interpretations require resort to general principles of statutory construction in order to give effect to legislative intent. Moncrief v. Wyoming State Bd. of Equalization, 856 P.2d 440, 444 (Wyo. 1993). Whether the task be interpretation or construction, it remains a "cardinal rule" that statutes be read in pari materia so that no part will be rendered inopera
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