 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Laney v. Fairview City8/9/2002
power system is a governmental function under Utah Code Ann. § 63-30-2(4)(a). Accordingly, absent a statutory or constitutional provision to the contrary, the City is entitled to immunity from suit regarding the maintenance of its power lines, a governmental function. Plaintiffs contend that the district court erred in determining that the City is entitled to claim immunity because section 63-30-2(4)(a)'s definition of "governmental function" renders it unconstitutional. Article I, section 11 of the Utah Constitution provides:
All courts shall be open, and every person, for an injury done to him in his person, property, or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law, which shall be administered without denial or unnecessary delay; and no person shall be barred from prosecuting or defending before any tribunal in this state, by himself or counsel any civil cause to which he is a party.
Plaintiffs argue that the Act, specifically section 63-30-2(4)(a), deprives them of their rights guaranteed by article I, section 11, the open courts clause.
A. Berry v. Beech Aircraft Analysis
The State urges this court to abandon nearly a century of precedent, arguing for an interpretation that would virtually write article I, section 11 out of the Utah Constitution. Specifically, the State asks the court to overrule Berry v. Beech Aircraft Corp., 717 P.2d 670 (Utah 1985), and the principles explained therein. As early as 1915, only twenty years after Utah's constitution was adopted, this court acknowledged that article I, section 11 placed "a limitation upon the Legislature to prevent that branch of the state government from closing the doors of the courts against any person who has a legal right which is enforceable in accordance with some known remedy." Brown v. Wightman, 47 Utah 31, 34, 151 P. 366, 366-67 (Utah 1915). Thus, the State's assertion that the provision speaks only to the judicial branch and not to the legislative branch, is a novel departure indeed. Berry did not create a new constitutional rule; rather, it developed and articulated a test by which the rule might be applied.
1. Plain Meaning and Historical Purpose
In arguing for article I, section 11 to be treated solely as a procedural right, the State disregards the plain meaning and historical purpose of Utah's open courts provision. Throughout our state's history, this court has consistently recognized that the plain meaning of the guarantee "impose some substantive limitation on the legislature to abolish judicial remedies in a capricious fashion." Craftsman Builder's Supply v. Butler Mfg., 1999 UT 18, 36, 974 P.2d 1194 (Stewart, J., concurring) (emphasis added).
In general, open courts provisions in Utah and other states have served two principal purposes:
First, they were intended to help establish an independent foundation for the judiciary as an institution. See Jonathan M. Hoffman, By the Course of the Law: The Origins of the Open Courts Clause of State Constitutions, 74 Or. L. Rev. 1279 (1995); Industrial Comm'n v. Evans, 52 Utah 394, 174 P. 825, 831 (1918) (" he question of ultimate legal liability cannot be withdrawn from the courts."). Second, open courts or remedies clauses were intended to grant individuals rights to a judicial remedy for the protection of their person, property, or reputation from abrogation and unreasonable limitation by economic interests that could control state legislatures. See Schuman, 65 Temp. L. Rev. at 1208; Berry, 717 P.2d at 675. Craftsman, 1999 UT 18 at 36, 974 P.2d 1194 (Stewart, J., concurring) (emphasis added).
Our holding in Berry, which recognizes the substantive protection of ar
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
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
By using the system, you agree to TERMS OF SERVICE
|