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Huber v. City of Casper11/5/1986
ess — Prohibited.
"(a) It shall be unlawful and punishable as hereinafter provided, for any person to operate a motor vehicle within the corporate limits of the City of Casper, Wyoming * * * and become involved in an accident with another vehicle * * * and fail to take reasonable steps to locate and notify the driver * * * of his name and his address * * *.
"(b) Driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury to or death of any person, * * * shall as soon as practical thereafter give notice of such accident to the Casper Police Department and provide his name, address and the location of said accident." (Emphasis added.)
The three factors involved in the convictions and appeal are "operate," "driver," and notice "as soon as practical thereafter."
Ordinance 18-81 is similar to §§ 31-5-1101 through 31-5-1105, W.S. 1977 (1984 Replacement). The elements of § 31-5-1101, which statute prohibits leaving the scene of an accident without furnishing identification and rendering aid to injured persons, are: (1) driving a vehicle, (2) involvement of the vehicle in an accident with another vehicle, and (3) failing to stop at the scene of the accident, furnish identification and render assistance. See Wood v. City of Casper, Wyo., 683 P.2d 1147 (1984).
LEAVING THE SCENE OF AN ACCIDENT
The first appeal question, whether appellant was operating a motor vehicle when the motorcycle impact occurred, will be answered by this court in the negative.
When construing a legislative enactment, we look at the specific language of the statute to discern legislative intent. Wyoming State Department of Education v. Barber, Wyo., 649 P.2d 681 (1982). The same rules which govern the construction of statutes apply also to the construction of ordinances. Town of Torrington v. Taylor, 59 Wyo. 109, 137 P.2d 621 (1943).
There is a "general rule that words of a statute are to be interpreted in their ordinary, everyday sense unless a contrary interpretation is indicated in the specific statute." Adams v. State, Wyo., 697 P.2d 622, 624 (1985). Another precept of construction is that a penal statute will not be extended by implication or construction to embrace persons not expressly subject to its application, and corollary to this precept is that "ambiguity concerning the application of criminal statutes should be resolved in favor of lenity." Capwell v. State, Wyo., 686 P.2d 1148, 1153 (1984). See Attletweedt v. State, Wyo., 684 P.2d 812 (1984), and Horn v. State, Wyo., 556 P.2d 925 (1976).
We examine, then, how, if at all, this ordinance applies to appellant. If he was operating the van when the collision occurred, in the sense contemplated by the language of the ordinance, then the judgment of the trial court may be correct if an insufficient report was made to the Casper police. The facts adduced at trial established that Huber pulled the van partially up onto the sidewalk, shut off the engine, and put the keys into his pocket before the vehicle impact occurred.
Plainly, the word "operate" is susceptible of several quite different meanings. "Operate" might have been used by the Casper City Council in a narrow sense, as a synonym for the word "drive," or it might have been used in the broadest sense, as an alternative for the phrase "in actual physical control of." See Adams v. State, supra. It is impossible to finitely assess the intent of the City Council from the language of the ordinance because "operate" is multifaceted in linguistic application.
The meaning of "operate" has not been previously addressed by this court, and we will therefore invoke authoritative gu
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