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Laney v. Fairview City8/9/2002
ates Smelting, Refining & Mining Co., 113 Utah 101, 191 P.2d 612 (1948). In Masich, discussed at length in Justice Stewart's opinion in Craftsman, see 1999 UT 18 at 64, 83-86, 974 P.2d 1194, this court, in determining the constitutionality under section 11 of the Occupational Disease Act, explained that although "certain individual rights and remedies can be made to yield to the public good," " f the legislature were to abolish all compensation and common law rights for negligence of an employer, no contention could reasonably be made that it was a proper exercise of the police power." Masich, 113 Utah at 125, 191 P.2d at 624 (emphasis added). Rather, " he reverse would be true and pauperism with its concomitants of vice and crime would flourish." Id. Under the State's interpretation of article I, section 11, the legislature would be entirely free to "abolish all compensation and common law rights for negligence of an employer," in the words of the Masich opinion, or indeed of any class of potential defendants with pockets deep enough to mount a successful lobbying campaign. Thus, the State's argument rejects the explicit position of the Masich court as well as the Brown court that section 11's remedy clause contains a limitation on the legislature as well as procedural guarantees affecting the courts. The analysis set forth in Berry, by contrast, is completely consistent with Masich, and protects Utah citizens in a way that has been obvious to this court since 1915.
Likewise, the plain meaning of the open courts clause as a substantive protection is consistent with our case law since Masich. See Craftsman, 1999 UT 18 at 38, 86, 974 P.2d 1194 (Stewart, J., concurring). With the sole exception of Justice Zimmerman's revised view, the meaning of the open courts provision has been unanimously concurred in by every justice sitting on Article I, section 11 cases before this court. Seeid. (noting unanimous concurrence of all thirteen justices of this court from Masich, 191 P.2d 612 (1948), to Hirpa v. IHC Hospitals, Inc., 948 P.2d 785 (Utah 1997) (Howe, J., applying Berry analysis in unanimous opinion)). This court has continued to apply the Berry analysis with absolutely no reservations, other than Justice Zimmerman's recantation of his original views. See, e.g., Craftsman at 15 n.5 (Russon, J.) ("As the analytical framework of the majority opinion suggests, Justice Russon agrees with the interpretation of the open courts clause as set forth by Justice Stewart in his concurring opinion."); see also Lyon v. Burton, 2000 UT 19, 82-85, 5 P.3d 616 (following the two-step analysis of Berry, where Justice Zimmerman was the only justice criticizing Berry). Furthermore, our reading of article 1, section 11 is not in any way unusual or unique in state constitutional law.
3. Stare Decisis
Under the doctrine of stare decisis, " hose asking us to overturn prior precedent have a substantial burden of persuasion." State v. Menzies, 889 P.2d 393, 398 (Utah 1994). We will not overturn precedent "unless clearly convinced that the rule was originally erroneous or is no longer sound because of changing conditions and that more good than harm will come by departing from precedent." Id. at 399 (quoting John Hanna, The Role of Precedent in Judicial Decision, 2 Vill. L. Rev. 367, 367 (1957)). The State has not met its burden.
In State v. Menzies, we overruled precedent that had been in place for approximately twenty years. Menzies, 889 P.2d at 399. However, we did not do so lightly, and the decision in that case was justified for three reasons that are not applicable here. First, the precedent in Menzies was "not the most weighty of precedents." Id. The Berry rule, however, is b
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