State v. Depew

Johnson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. In this proceeding the question presented is whether a person employed by the State of Maryland as an auditor, who, in order to perform his duties in various parts of the state, uses, in going to and from such assignments, an automobile furnished him by the State Auditor, is thereby, in so using said vehicle, a chauffeur, within the purview of section 173 of article 56 of the Code (Supp. 1935). It is admitted that at the time of his arrest appellee was so employed and was returning from Frederick to Baltimore City in company with others similarly employed; that he had an operator’s license, but no chauffeur’s license. He was charged before a justice of the ²⁷⁶ peace of Baltimore County with having operated an automobile upon the public highways of the county without a chauffeur’s license, upon which charge he was found guilty and sentenced to pay a fine and costs.

Upon appeal to the Circuit Court for that county from the judgment, he was found not guilty, and by virtue of Chapter 238, Acts of 1937 (Code, art. 5, sec. 102-A) the case comes to us upon a writ of certiorari granted by this court upon the representation that decisions throughout the state upon the question involved are conflicting. In section 186, article 56, provision is made for two types of licenses, motor vehicle operator’s license and chauffeur’s license, and it is provided by section 173 of the same article that the term “chauffeur” as used in the statute includes “every person operating a motor vehicle for hire, or as an employee of the owner thereof,” while by section 188 authority is given the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles to determine “in disputed cases * * * the kind of license to which any applicant may be entitled.” In 1917 and again in 1926 opinions were rendered by the then Attorney-Generals of the State, construing the section in question to mean that chauffeur licenses were required of all persons operating their employer’s automobile, including those who operated automobiles owned by the