Ives v. Commissioner of Motor Vehicles

Syllabus

The plaintiff appealed to the trial court from a decision by the defendant commissioner of motor vehicles suspending the plaintiff's operator's license, pursuant to statute ([Rev. to 2015] § 14-227b), for a period of forty-five days and requiring the installation of an ignition interlock device in his motor vehicle for six months. The plaintiff claimed, inter alia, that the trial court erred in concluding that blood test results need not satisfy the conditions for admissibility and competence set forth by statute (§ 14-227a [k]) to be admissible in an administrative license suspension hearing. The plaintiff claimed that the trial court improperly interpreted a 2009 amendment to § 14-227b (j) as changing the require- ments for the admissibility of chemical evidence at an administrative hearing, and that because he did not suffer and was not alleged to have suffered a physical injury in an accident as required by § 14-227a (k), his blood sample was improperly obtained. Held: 1. The trial court properly determined that the blood test derived from the plaintiff's blood sample satisfied the conditions for admissibility in the underlying administrative hearing before the defendant; although § 14- 227b (j), which applies to administrative proceedings, and § 14-227a (k), which applies to criminal proceedings, plainly and unambiguously set forth certain factual preconditions that must be satisfied in order for those sections to be applicable to their respective proceedings, § 14- 227b (j) sets forth an additional precondition not contained in the crimi- nal statute, which was added by the 2009 amendment, that applies when a police officer otherwise determines that an operator of a motor vehicle requires treatment or observation at a hospital and which appears to create a conflict between the administrative statute and the criminal statute as to whether the blood test results derived from a blood sample taken from an operator may be admitted in a subsequent license suspen- si