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Baldwin v. Director of Revenue6/27/2000
ermine the intent of the legislature. American Healthcare Management, Inc. v. Director of Revenue, 984 S.W.2d 496, 498 (Mo. banc 1999). When the legislature amends a statute, the amendment is presumed to have some effect. Hagan v. Director of Revenue, 968 S.W.2d 704, 706 (Mo. banc 1998); Wollard v. City of Kansas City, 831 S.W.2d 200, 203 (Mo. banc 1992). In deciding the effect of the amendment, the Court looks to the words used in the statute and the plain and ordinary meaning of those words. American Healthcare Management, 984 S.W.2d at 498; Wollard, 831 S.W.2d at 203. When the legislative intent cannot be ascertained by giving the language of the statute its plain and ordinary meaning, the statute is considered ambiguous, and only then are the rules of statutory construction applied. Bosworth v. Sewell, 918 S.W.2d 773, 777 (Mo. banc 1996).
Under Missouri law, a driver is considered intoxicated when his or her blood alcohol content is .10% or greater. Section 577.037.1, RSMo Cum. Supp. (1996). Such person is subject to license suspension or revocation. Section 302.505.1, RSMo Cum. Supp. (1996). Prior to 1996, section 302.505.1 provided:
The department shall suspend or revoke the license of any person upon its determination that the person was arrested upon probable cause to believe he was driving a motor vehicle while the alcohol concentration in the person's blood or breath was ten-hundredths of one percent or more by weight of alcohol in his blood, based on the definition of alcohol concentration in section 302.500.
Section 302.505.1, RSMo (1994) (emphasis added). In 1996, the General Assembly amended section 302.505, and the revision is otherwise referred to as Missouri's "Zero Tolerance Law." Director of Revenue v. Christman, 968 S.W.2d 737, 739 (Mo. App. E.D. 1998). As a result of the revision, the following provision was added:
...or where such person was less than twenty-one years of age when stopped and was stopped upon probable cause to believe such person was driving while intoxicated in violation of section 577.010, RSMo, or driving with excessive blood alcohol content in violation of section 577.012, RSMo, or upon probable cause to believe such person violated a state, county or municipal traffic offense and such person was driving with a blood alcohol content of two-hundredths of one percent or more by weight.
Section 302.505.1 (emphasis added). At the same time, the legislature amended section 302.541.2 to read as follows:
Any person less than twenty-one years of age whose driving privilege has been suspended or revoked solely for a first determination pursuant to sections 302.500 to 302.540 that such person was driving a motor vehicle with two-hundredths of one percent or more blood alcohol content is exempt from filing proof of financial responsibility with the department of revenue in accordance with Chapter 303, RSMo, as a prerequisite for reinstatement of driving privileges or obtaining a restricted driving privilege as provided by section 302.525.
Section 302.541.2 (emphasis added). Finally, the legislature adopted section 302.545, which provides in pertinent part:
Any person who is less than twenty-one years of age and whose driving privilege has been suspended or revoked, for a first determination under sections 302.500 to 302.540, that such person was driving with two-hundredths of one percent of blood alcohol content, shall have all official records and all recordations maintained by the department of revenue of such suspension or revocation expunged two years after the date of such suspension or revocation, or when such person attains the age of twenty-one, whichever date first occurs
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