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Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Ind. Decisions - More on yesterday's COA decision in the BMV ID rules case

The COA decision yesterday in the case of In Joel Silverman, Commissioner of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles v. Miguel Villegas, Betty Doe, et al., is the subject of a story today by Eric Berman of WIBC. The story is headlined "State must pay legal fees because procedural error briefly invalidated ID rules."

Toughened BMV requirements to prove your identity before getting a driver's license withstood a court challenge -- but the state still must pay $112,000 to three illegal aliens who challenged the rules.

The immigrants filed a class-action suit in 2002, contending stricter ID requirements were unconstitutional. They lost that claim, but the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in 2005 the BMV had violated notice requirements in imposing the rule. The BMV fixed the procedural error in 2006.

When you get sued and lose, you generally have to pay legal fees. The state argued since it won the main point, it shouldn't have to pay. A 2-1 appeals court disagrees.

This is the case where the COA held identification requirements put in place by the BMV invalid because they were, according to the ruling: "not promulgated pursuant to the Indiana Administrative Rules and Procedures Act (“ARPA”), Indiana Code § 4-22-2 et seq. Because the requirements were not promulgated in accordance with the ARPA, they are void and without effect." See this Aug. 12, 2005 ILB entry.

To correct this problem, the BMV had to start over and go through the entire rulemaking process, designed to ensure procedural due process. This took a number of months, including a public hearing. See this ILB entry from Sept. 10, 2005 re the details.

On March 10, 2006 the Supreme Court dismissed the BMV's transfer petition as moot, according to this ILB entry.

Next followed the current case to collect attorney fees. The write-up for the July 8th oral argument states:

This case follows Villegas v. Silverman, 832 N.E.2d 598 (Ind. Ct. App. 2005). The Bureau of Motor Vehicles' ("BMV") identification requirements were challenged by illegal aliens. After this court held that the BMV had to comply with rulemaking procedures to adopt identification requirements and remanded to the trial court, the BMV properly promulgated identification rules. The trial court on remand granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs because the previously-challenged identification requirements were void. The trial court then granted the plaintiffs' motion for attorney fees in excess of $100,000 upon finding that they were "prevailing parties" for the purpose of 42 U.S.C. § 1988. Joel Silverman, in his official capacity as Commissioner of the BMV, appeals the trial court's award of attorney fees. The Scheduled Panel Members are: Chief Judge Baker, Judges Riley and Judge Robb.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 1, 2008 12:52 PM
Posted to Ind. App.Ct. Decisions