Manning v. Department of Motor Vehicles

Opinion

SILLS, P. J.

— Richard J. Manning was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and submitted to a urine test. The forensic report from the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Department crime laboratory showed he had a blood-alcohol concentration above the legal limit of 0.08 percent. Following an administrative per se hearing, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) suspended his driving privilege for driving with a blood-1 alcohol concentration in excess of the legal limit.

Manning petitioned for writ of administrative mandamus. The superior court issued the writ and the DMV appealed. We affirmed the judgment in a nonpublished opinion, relying on

Wheeler

v.

Department of Motor Vehicles

[275]

(1994) 34 Cal.App.4th 228 [45 Cal.Rptr.2d 462].

Wheeler

held, among other things, that a forensic blood test must be sworn to be admissible in an administrative per se hearing.

1

However, the Supreme Court granted review in this case and, after it issued its opinion in

Lake

v.

Reed

(1997) 16 Cal.4th 448 [65 Cal.Rptr.2d 860, 940 P.2d 311], transferred it to us with directions to reconsider the cause in light of

Lake.

Lake

held that “. . . a forensic laboratory report need not be sworn as a condition of admission into evidence at an administrative per se review hearing. So long as the forensic laboratory report complies with other statutory requirements, it becomes an ‘official record’ of the DMV and, though unsworn, is admissible in the administrative review hearing