Noli v. Department of Motor Vehicles

[448]

Opinion

THE COURT.

*

Following an administrative hearing, respondent Department of Motor Vehicles ordered appellant’s driver’s license suspended for six months pursuant to Vehicle Code section 13353, which provides for such suspension when a motorist lawfully arrested for driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor refuses to submit to one of three chemical tests for determining the alcoholic content of his blood. The present appeal is from a judgment of the superior court denying appellant’s petition for administrative mandamus to compel respondent to vacate the license suspension order.

Appellant was arrested in Merced County by California Highway Patrol officers in the evening of June 30, 1980, on suspicion of drunk driving (Veh. Code, § 23102, subd. (a)). The two officers took him to the Merced Community Medical Center (Medical Center). In the parking lot there, before they entered the building, one officer read the following statement to appellant from a Department of Motor Vehicles form: “You are required by state law to submit to a chemical test to determine the alcoholic content of your blood. You have a choice of whether the test is to be your blood, breath or urine. If you refuse to submit to a test or fail to complete a test, your driving privilege will be suspended for a period of six months. You do not have the right to talk to an attorney or to have an attorney present before stating whether you will submit to a test, before deciding which test to take, or during the administration of the test chosen. If you are incapable or state you are incapable of completing the test you choose, you must submit to and complete any of the remaining tests or test.” The officer then asked appellant successively whether he would submit to a blood test, a breath test, or a urine test. Appellant answered no to the first two but yes to the urine test. The two officers then took appellant into the Medical Center and asked him again whether he would submit to a blood test or a breath test, which would be given at the Medical Centtir, but appellant refused both.

Appellant was “combative” with the officers and was in handcuffs while at the Medical Center. The officers were unwilling to remove the handcuffs at the Medical Center to allow the urine test to be taken there. They told appellant that the urine test would have to be given at