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City of Chattanooga v. Davis9/4/2001
and statutory authority in Hamilton County. The judgment of the Court of Appeals on these issues is affirmed as modified herein.
Tenn. R. App. P. 11 Application for Permission to Appeal; Judgment of the Court of Appeals Affirmed in Part, and Affirmed in Part as Modified in City of Chattanooga v. Davis; Judgment of the Court of Appeals Reversed in Barrett v. Metropolitan Government
OPINION
The primary issue in these consolidated cases is whether a monetary assessment imposed for the violation of a municipal ordinance is subject to the provisions of Article VI, section 14 of the Tennessee Constitution. This section, also commonly known as the Fifty-Dollar Fines Clause, reads as follows:
No fine shall be laid on any citizen of this State that shall exceed fifty dollars, unless it shall be assessed by a jury of his peers, who shall assess the fine at the time they find the fact, if they think the fine should be more than fifty dollars.
The appellant in City of Chattanooga v. Davis also raises three additional issues: (1) whether Tennessee Code Annotated section 6-54-306 violates Article VI, section 14, either on its face or as applied to this case; (2) whether Tennessee Code Annotated sections 6-54-306 and 55-10-307 violate Article XI, section 8 of the Tennessee Constitution, either on their face or as applied to this case; and (3) whether the City of Chattanooga has used section 55-10-307 to infringe upon the District Attorney General's constitutional and statutory authority as set forth in Article VI, section 5 and Tennessee Code Annotated section 8-7-103. A brief review of the relevant facts of each of these cases will serve to place these issues in their proper context.
City of Chattanooga v. Davis
On December 6, 1998, a Chattanooga City police officer cited the appellant, Kevin Davis, for reckless driving in violation of Chattanooga City Code section 24-13(a). The appellant was ordered to appear before the Chattanooga City Court, and on January 12, 1999, he pleaded guilty and received a three-hundred dollar fine. The record contains no evidence that the court advised the appellant of any rights under Article VI, section 14 of the Tennessee Constitution or that he waived any such rights before entering his plea.
The appellant then filed a timely petition before the Hamilton County Criminal Court, requesting dismissal of the charges against him on three primary grounds: (1) that the three-hundred dollar penalty imposed by the City Court violated Article VI, section 14; (2) that Tennessee Code Annotated section 6-54-306 and Chattanooga City Code section 1-8(a), which both permit the City to impose "monetary penalties" in amounts up to five hundred dollars, violate Article VI, section 14; and (3) that section 6-54-306 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Class Legislation Clause of Article XI, section 8 of the Tennessee Constitution. After holding a hearing on these issues on June 21, the criminal court held that the city court's three-hundred dollar assessment violated Article VI, section 14 of the Tennessee Constitution, and it reduced the appellant's penalty to fifty dollars. The criminal court also upheld the constitutionality of Tennessee Code Annotated section 6-54-306 and Chattanooga City Code section 1-8(a).
On July 14, 1999, the criminal court issued an order enjoining the City from imposing monetary penalties in excess of fifty dollars. When the City moved to dissolve or modify the injunction, the appellant asked the court to "clarify" its position concerning the constitutionality of Tennessee Code Annotated section 6-54-306. The appellant also form
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Tennessee DUI Attorneys
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