Dimmitt v. City Court of Salt Lake City , 21 Utah 2d 257 ( 1968 )

CROCKETT, Chief Justice:

On May 2, 1967, Randy Dimmitt, age 17, was issued a traffic citation by Salt Lake City police charging him with operating a motor vehicle without a valid operator’s license, without a valid registration certificate, with an inoperative muffler and a defective tail light. After entering a plea of not guilty in the city court, he filed this action in the district court to restrain the city court from proceeding on the ground that it had no jurisdiction, urging that the juvenile court has exclusive jurisdiction over him and such offenses because he is a minor.¹ From a rejection of his petition, plaintiff appeals.

It is true that our Juvenile Court Act indicates generally that juvenile offenders should be dealt with in the juvenile courts, should not be accused of crime nor treated as criminals, and that the proceedings shall be informal and equitable in the interest of the child.² But it is also to be noted that certain exceptions are provided for. Sec. 55-10-77 of the Juvenile Court Act of 1965³ sets out the jurisdiction of the juvenile court as follows:

Except as otherwise provided by law, the court shall have exclusive original jurisdiction in proceedings:

(1) Concerning any child who has violated any federal, state, or local law or municipal ordinance, * * *

Inasmuch as the emphasized clause makes it clear that there may be exceptions to the juvenile court’s jurisdiction if “otherwise provided by law,” the pertinent inquiry is whether it is in fact “otherwise provided by law” that the juvenile court does not have exclusive jurisdiction of traffic violations.

It is unquestionable that at the time that Sec. 55-10-77 quoted above was enacted it was “otherwise provided by law” that city courts have jurisdiction over these traffic offenses. Sec. 78-4-16, U. C.A. 1953, states:

The city court shall have exclusive original jurisdiction of all cases arising under or by reason of the violation of any of the ordinances of the city * *

We revert to the critical question: does Sec. 55-10-77 which uses the same language, “exclusive original jurisdiction” in giving the juvenile court jurisdiction over children, deprive the city court of jurisdiction in traffic cases? It is obvious that both courts cannot have “exclusive original jurisdiction” over them. It is, therefore, appropriate to look to other sections of the act which bear upon the problem.

The provision of the Juvenile Court Act which deals with charging a child with an offense is Sec. 55-10-105(4):

No child shall be charged with crime nor be convicted in any court except as provided in section 55-10-86 and in cases involving traffic violations. * * *

It is argued, not without plausibility, that the above section indicates that children may be charged and convicted of crime in the juvenile court for traffic violations.. However, it is also pointed out that there are good reasons to support a construction that it was - intended that the juvenile court did not have exclusive jurisdiction, but that children could be charged in any court having jurisdiction over traffic violations. In subsection (4) just quoted the “and” is conjunctive and clearly denotes exceptions in two classes of cases. The first relates to acts which if done by an adult would be felonies, which can be handled by other courts as provided in Sec. 55-10-86. Immediately following and apparently closely related in thought is the second exception "and in cases involving traffic violations.” It does not seem illogical to interpret this as intending that traffic violations could also be handled in other courts.

The court has no concern with the wisdom or soundness of a statute, or the reasons to justify it, except as it may aid in the proper interpretation thereof. In the latter connection the following have been suggested as reasons why the legislature thought that traffic violations should be treated as different from other offenses and also be handled in other courts. An important one of these is the tremendous increase in traffic and in violations in recent years which makes it desirable that there be the most efficient, expeditious and uniform treatment possible. Minors must be at least 16J4 years of age before driving. In doing so they are exercising the privileges of adults, and in the interest of uniformity of law enforcement and equality of treatment they should be treated as adults. Another point bearing on this problem is that a high proportion of traffic violations can be regarded as in the nature of errors in violating traffic rules, rather than as manifesting basic antisocial attitudes to which the stigma of crime should attach. Consistent with the foregoing is the fact that even when traffic offenses are handled in the juvenile courts there are special provisions for their different treatment in closer conformity with their handling in other courts.⁴

Where a court is given and would normally have jurisdiction as does the city court under Sec. 78-4 — 16, there would have to be a clear and unequivocal declaration of legislative intent to deprive that court of jurisdiction and confer exclusive jurisdiction on the juvenile court.⁵ As will be seen from the above discussion of the pertinent statutes, it is arguable on the one hand that children may be proceeded against for traffic violations only in the juvenile court, where as on the other hand, there is an entirely reasonable construction of the statutes that they may be proceeded against in the city court having jurisdiction over cases of traffic violation. In the absence of any clear and unequivocal legislative indication that the city courts are deprived of jurisdiction, we are in accord with the ruling of the district court that city courts have concurrent jurisdiction with the juvenile court in cases where children are charged with traffic violations.

Affirmed. No costs awarded. (All emphasis added.)

TUCKETT, J., concurs.

1 . The Juvenile Court Act, Sec. 55-10-64 (3), U.C.A.1953, defines a child as any person less than 18 years of age.

2 . See Sec. 55-10-63 et seq. and Sec. 55-10-105, U.C.A.1953; see statement in In Interest of Lindh, 11 Utah 2d 385, 359 P.2d 1058, and authorities cited therein.

3 .Codified as Secs. 55-10-63 through 123, U.C.A.1953 (1967 Supp.).

4 . Under the Juvenile Court Act traffic violations are the only ones with respect to which a petition need not be filed to initiate the proceedings, Sec. 55-10-83(3) ; also different from the usual treatment of delinquencies, such violations may he used against the juvenile’s record, Sec. 55-10-105(3), and may be filed with the State Department of Public Safety, Sec. 55-10-105(5) ; Sec. 55-10-79 provides for removal to other courts, all of which sections in the writer’s opinion only add to the conflict with Sec. 78-14-16.

5 . This is true despite the fact that the Juvenile Court Act (see footnote 3 above) was a later enactment, because the law does not favor nullification of a statute unless the intent to do so is clear. See Union Pac. R.R. Co. v. Pub. Serv. Comm., 103 Utah 186, 134 P.2d 469; 50 Am.Jur. 540.