Defendant was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated (OWI) under an ordinance corresponding to MCL 257.625(1). She moved to dismiss the charge, arguing that she was not “operating” the vehicle as defined in MCL 257.35a. The district court denied defendant’s motion, but the circuit court reversed and ordered that the charges be dismissed. Relying on People v Wood,
I. BASIC FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
The facts of this case are not in dispute. On March 7, 2010, a doorman at a martini bar known as “336” alerted Officer Kevin Chumney that he had observed some females in a Pontiac G6 hit a concrete barrier when they entered the parking deck earlier that evening. The doorman advised Chumney that the females were leaving the bar and that they appeared to be drunk. Chumney saw the vehicle, which was legally parked. As he approached, another car backed out and he waited. While waiting, Chumnеy noticed that the backup lights of the Pontiac were on. He believed that the brake lights were on as well. After the other car drove away, Chumney hesitated because he did not want the Pontiac to back into him. The backup lights turned off, and it appeared that the transmission had bеen put into park again. The vehicle “settled a little bit,” but the tires did not move. Chumney activated his overhead lights and blocked the car. He approached the driver’s side and spoke to defendant, who was the driver. The vehicle was still running. Defendant stated that they were not leaving bеcause they were looking for her friend’s jacket.
Defendant was charged with OWL In the district court, defendant moved to dismiss the charge and argued, in part, that she had not “operate[d]” her vehicle as that term was interpreted in Wood because the vehicle was stationary and was not in a position where it posed a
In the instant case, the Court believes that Defendant did operate a vehicle in an area open to the public designated for parking that could have caused a collision with another vehicle or person. The police in-car video shows Defendant’s vehicle running apparently in reverse with the driver’s foot on the brake then shifted back into park with the driver’s foot taken off the brake. While the vehicle wheels did not noticeably move, this Court finds Defendant was “operating” the motor vehicle.
Defendant appealed in the circuit court. Relying on Wood, the circuit court reversed, explaining:
The Michigan Supreme Court has defined “operating” in People v Wood,450 Mich 399 , 404-405: “Oncе a person using a motor vehicle as a motor vehicle has put the vehicle in motion, or in a position posing a significant risk of causing a collision, such a person continues to operate it until the vehicle is returned to a position posing no such risk.”
The district court errеd when it found that the defendant was operating the vehicle as Wood defined operating. It is undisputed that the vehicle was never put in motion by the defendant. It is also undisputed that the car was legally and properly parked in a designated parking spot therefore it was not put in a position posing a significant risk of causing a collision.
We granted the prosecution’s application for leave to appeal. People v Longeway, unpublished order of the Court of Appeals, entered May 16, 2011 (Docket No. 300493).
This Court reviews de novo questions of statutory interpretation. People v Yamat,
When construing a statute, our primary goal is to ascertain and give effect to the intent of the Legislature. To do so, we begin by examining the language of the statute. If the statute’s language is clear and unambiguous, we assume thаt the Legislature intended its plain meaning and the statute is enforced as written. Stated differently, a court may read nothing into an unambiguous statute that is not within the manifest intent of the Legislature as derived from the words of the statute itself. Only where the statutory language is ambiguous may a court properly go beyond the words of the statute to ascertain legislative intent. [Citations and quotation marks omitted.]
III. ANALYSIS
Defendant was charged under MCL 257.625(1), which states:
A person, whether licensed or not, shall not operate a vehicle upon a highway or other place open to the general public or generally accessible to motor vehicles, including an area designated for the parking of vehicles, within this state if the person is operating while intoxicated. [Emphasis added.]
MCL 257.35a defines “operate” as follows:
“Operate” or “operating” means being in actual physical control of a vehicle regardless of whether or not the person is licensed under this act as an operator or chauffeur. [Emphasis added.]
Defendant does not dispute that she started the vеhicle, applied the brakes to her running vehicle,
Rather than foсusing on the unambiguous language of the relevant statutes, the parties, the district court, and the circuit court applied principles from Wood, which analyzed the meaning of “operate” when discussing the companion cases of People v Pomeroy (On Rehearing) and People v Fulcher (On Rehearing),
*7 If the car had been in motion, the person in the driver’s seat might have been found to be “operating” it even though he asserted that he was asleep. If the person in the driver’s seat had beеn awake, he might have been found to have been in such physical control of the car as to support a conclusion that he was operating it even if the car was motionless.
A sleeping person is seldom operating anything. Certainly these sleeping persons were not operating their motionless cars at the time of their arrests. [Id. at 446-447.]
In Wood, the police discovered the defendant unconscious in his vehicle at a drive-through window of a restaurant. The engine was running, the vehicle was in drive, and the defendant’s foot was on the brake. After the police arrеsted him, they searched his vehicle and discovered marijuana. Relying on Pomeroy/Fulcher, the trial court suppressed the evidence because the police did not see the defendant committing the misdemeanor offense of OUIL. The Supreme Court summarized the conclusions that it had drawn in the prior cases as follows:
This Court addressed the definition of “operate” in Pomeroy and the companion case, Fulcher. We there said that a conscious person in a stationary vehicle might have “actual physical control,” and thus operate it. We suggested that no particular state of mind is required to operate a motor vehicle. We also said that a person who is sleeping in a moving vehicle might be found to “operate” it.
But the combination of a stationary vehicle and an unconscious driver in Pomeroy/Fulcher persuaded the Court that the defendants there were not operating their vehicles when found by the police. [Wood,450 Mich at 403-404 .]
After recognizing the difficulty of аpplying the definition of “operating” when a driver was unconscious, the Court stated:
*8 We conclude that “operating” should be defined in terms of the danger the OUIL statute seeks to prevent: the collision of a vehicle being operated by a person under the influence of an intоxicating liquor with other persons or property. Once a person using a motor vehicle as a motor vehicle has put the vehicle in motion, or in a position posing a significant risk of causing a collision, such a person continues to operate it until the vehicle is returned to a position posing no such risk. [Id. at 404-405.]
The Court disagreed with and overruled Pomeroy/Fulcher to a limited degree, explaining:
The Pomeroy¡Fulcher Court stated that “a person sleeping in a motionless car cannot be held to be presently operating a vehicle while sleeping.” We read that statement as reflecting an assumption that there was no danger of collision in such a case. The facts of this case show that this assumption was an overgeneralization. Pomeroy ¡Fulcher is overruled to the extent it holds, for purposes of construing what conduct is within the meaning of “operate a vehicle,” that “a person sleeping in a motionless car cannot be held to be presently operating a vehicle while sleeping.” [Id. at 405.]
Several decisions from this Court have applied Wood in the context of sleeping/unconscious drivers discovered inside the motor vehicle, see, e.g., People v Stephen,
However, we find that Wood is inapplicable to this situation involving a conscious (albeit allegedly intoxicated) driver who was sitting inside a stationary vehicle and engaged in operational activity such as starting the engine and changing gears. The Wood Court did not purport to nullify or narrow the clear statutory definitions of “operate” and “operator;”
We find further support in our Supreme Court’s decision in Yamat, which was decided 11 years after Wood. In Yamat, the Court considered the definition of “operate” in the context of the felonious-driving statute, MCL 257.626c. The defendant was a passenger in a car and grabbed the steering wheel while fighting with his girlfriend, who was driving. When the defendant grabbed the wheel, the car veered off the road and struck a jogger. Yamat,
Accordingly, we reverse the circuit court’s order and remand this case to the district court for reinstatement of the charge.
Reversed and remanded to the district court. We do not retain jurisdiction.
Notes
Much like MCL 257.35a, MCL 257.36 provides: “ ‘Operator’ means every person, other than a chauffeur, who is in actual physical control of a motor vehicle upon a highway.”