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Kirkland v. Blaine County Medical Center6/29/2000
603 does not violate the separation of powers doctrine.
Finally, the Kirklands argue even if I.C. § 6-1603 does not violate the right to jury trial and does not constitute special legislation, it is nevertheless unconstitutional because the statute violates the separation of powers doctrine. The separation of powers doctrine is embodied in two provisions of the Idaho Constitution. Article II, § 1 provides:
The powers of the government of this state are divided into three distinct departments, the legislative, executive and judicial; and no person or collection of persons charged with the exercise of powers properly belonging to one of these departments shall exercise any powers properly belonging to either of the others, except as in this constitution expressly directed or permitted.
IDAHO CONST. art. II, § 1. Article V, § 13 of the Idaho Constitution provides:
The legislature shall have no power to deprive the judicial department of any power or jurisdiction which rightly pertains to it as a coordinate department of the government; but the legislature shall provide a proper system of appeals, and regulate by law, when necessary, the methods of proceeding in the exercise of their powers of all the courts below the Supreme Court, so far as the same may be done without conflict with the Constitution, provided, however, that the legislature can provide mandatory minimum sentences for any crimes, and any sentence imposed shall not be less than the mandatory minimum sentence so provided. Any mandatory minimum sentence so imposed shall not be reduced. IDAHO CONST. art V, § 13.
The Kirklands argue I.C. § 6-1603 violates the separation of powers doctrine because it deprives the judiciary of its discretionary power to grant remitittur and a new trial in personal injury cases. According to the Kirklands, because the statute reduces damages by operation of law, without regard to the specific circumstances of each particular jury award, the statute infringes on the inherent right of the courts to reduce jury verdicts in those instances where the evidence demonstrates the jury's verdict is excessive as a matter of law. See, e.g., Best v. Taylor Machine Works, 689 N.E.2d 1057 (Ill. 1997); Sofie v. Fibreboard Corp., 771 P.2d 711, 720-21 (Wash. 1989) (stating in dicta a cap on non-economic damages may violate the separation of powers because it is a legislative attempt to mandate a legal conclusion).
Despite the Kirklands arguments, we believe I.C. § 6-1603 does not impermissibly infringe on the judiciary's traditional power of remittitur. Nothing in I.C. § 6-1603 purports to limit the exercise of the judiciary's constitutional powers or jurisdiction. Rather, if anything, the statute is a limitation on the rights of plaintiffs, not the judiciary. Because it is properly within the power of the legislature to establish statutes of limitations, statutes of repose, create new causes of action, and otherwise modify the common law without violating separation of powers principles, it necessarily follows that the legislature also has the power to limit remedies available to plaintiffs without violating the separation of powers doctrine. As the federal district court noted in Franklin v. Mazda Motor Corp.:
There can be little doubt that were a legislative body to review a dispute between two parties and resolve the compensation to be awarded, the activity would be a judicial one reserved to courts and juries. On the other hand, when a legislative body, without regard to facts of a particular case, dispute or incident, but rather as a matter of policy and rule determines for all citizens in all incidents that may occur thereafter that recovery will be
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