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THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
___________________________
Plymouth District Court
No. 97-797
THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
v.
SUSAN MEISSNER
December 16, 1999
Philip T. McLaughlin, attorney general (N. William Delker, attorney, on the brief and orally), for the State.
Flood Professional Association, of Manchester (Scott W. Flood on the brief and orally), for the defendant.
BRODERICK, J. The defendant, Susan Meissner, appeals a seven-day license suspension under RSA 263:57 (1993) (amended 1997) ordered following her speeding conviction in the Plymouth District Court (Kent, J.). Although the defendant raises several issues on appeal, we address only her argument that the trial court abused its discretion in suspending her license. We vacate the suspension and remand for resentencing.
The following facts were adduced at trial. On May 21, 1997, the defendant was stopped by a State trooper after his radar recorded her traveling seventy-eight miles per hour in a forty-five mile per hour zone on the Franconia Notch Parkway. The officer, however, only charged her with traveling seventy-eight miles per hour in a sixty-five mile per hour zone. The trial court found that the defendant had, in fact, traveled thirty-one miles per hour over the posted speed limit while passing another vehicle. Based on the defendant's testimony that she failed to notice any speed limit signs, the court found that she paid inadequate attention to the road. The court imposed a fine and suspended her license for seven days pursuant to RSA 263:57.
The defendant argues that the trial court abused its discretion in suspending her license because it did so without sufficient cause. The State asserts that RSA 263:57 provides the court broad discretion to suspend an operator's license when it finds a violation of the rules of the road.
RSA 263:57 provides:
Any justice of a district or municipal court or of the superior court may suspend any license issued to any person, for a period not to exceed 30 days, after a conviction of an offense under the provisions of this title, after due hearing, for any cause which he may deem sufficient.
While the trial court has discretion to suspend a license under this statute, its discretion is not unlimited. Cf. State v. Landry, 131 N.H. 65, 67, 550 A.2d 94, 95 (1988). Because we grant deference to the trial court's findings, however, the defendant must establish that its decision was "clearly untenable or unreasonable to the prejudice of [her] case." State v. Voorhees, 137 N.H. 650, 652, 632 A.2d 825, 826 (1993) (quotation omitted).
"The suspension or revocation of a driver's license is not intended as a punishment to the driver, but is designed solely for the protection of the public in the use of the highways." 7A Am. Jur. 2d Automobiles and Highway Traffic