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Laney v. Fairview City8/9/2002
ke the Berry proponents. Wightman respects the constitutional right and authority of the legislature to determine the circumstances under which a right of action or remedy is created, "under either the common law or statute," with the Open Courts Clause "creat none." The Wightman court continued, "While the common-law rule is a harsh one, and its enforcement in this case is particularly unjust, we nevertheless can see no way of escaping it. The right and power, as well as the duty, of creating rights and to provide remedies, lies with the Legislature, and not with the courts. Courts can only protect and enforce existing rights, and they may do that only in accordance with established and known remedies." Id.
Lyman v. National Mortgage Bond Corp. also suggests a procedural interpretation. In Lyman, plaintiffs sought to quiet title to land that they claimed to own by receipt of a tax deed and by adverse possession. 7 Utah 2d 123, 124, 320 P.2d 322, 322 (1958). By statute, the holder of a tax title to real estate was required to demonstrate payment of taxes assessed upon the property for four years prior to the tax delinquency. Id. at 124, 20 P.2d 323. The defendants conceded that the plaintiffs had produced sufficient evidence of ownership by adverse possession, but argued that the tax deed was insufficient because the plaintiffs failed to prove taxes had been paid for the four years before the prior landowner was delinquent, even though the evidence was clear that all the necessary taxes had been paid since 1941. Id. The court considered the constitutionality of this legislation that, according to the court, forbade the commencement of an action or defense claiming ownership unless the plaintiffs "seized, possessed or occupied" the property for four years prior to filing suit. Two justices, Justice Wade and Justice Crockett, construed the statute so as not to bar the defendants from presenting their quiet title claim in court because to do so "would be in effect to deny them access to the courts to litigate a valid right to property[, and] this seems to be what the [Open Courts Clause] prohibits." In my view, these members of the court interpreted the Open Courts Clause to guarantee "access to the courts to litigate" one's rights and remedies, if any.
To me, Salt Lake City v. International Association of Firefighters suggests a procedural interpretation. In International Association of Firefighters, the court held unconstitutional a statute that required disputes between firemen and municipal corporations regarding wages, hours, and other conditions of employment to be submitted to arbitration, where the arbitration process, as declared by the act, was final and binding on all matters in dispute except for salary and wage matters. 563 P.2d 786, 787-789 (Utah 1977). The majority opinion noted that the arbitrators were private citizens with no responsibility to the public and that the act did not include a safeguard of judicial review and then proceeded to declare the Act an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority under Article VI, section 28. Id. at 789. Justice Crockett concurred separately, noting that for the legislature to "force arbitration upon the parties and to make it final and binding," forcing parties to proceed through a dispute resolution mechanism other than the courts for which there is no judicial review, "deprive an aggrieved party of access to the courts, contrary to the assurance of Section 11, Article I, [the Open Courts Clause]." Id. at 791. In my view, the legislation reviewed in International Association of Firefighters violated the Open Courts Clause because it "deprive an aggrieved party of access to the courts," and had the majority not held that the legis
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Utah Personal Injury Attorneys
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