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Craftsman Builder's Supply Inc. v. Butler Manufacturing Co.3/5/1999
l purposes of article I, section 11, we analyzed article I, section 11 "historically." Unfortunately, in my view, Berry's historical analysis was limited to noting that thirty-seven states have similar constitutional provisions that all appear to have originated with Sir Edward Coke's gloss on chapter 29 of the 1297 Magna Carta. No effort was made to determine the meaning of the open courts provision in the historical context of this state or to define what is an "injury" to "person, property or reputation." See id. at 675-80.
Next, Berry sought to establish a detailed analytical model for determining when the substantive protections of the provision were violated. But to do so, Berry first had to give explicit operative substantive content to the general purposes it found in article I, section 11. In searching for that substantive content, we stated that " he meaning of section 11 must be taken not only from its history and plain language, but also from its functional relationship to other constitutional provisions." Id. at 675. To that end, we noted the similarities between article I, section 11 and article I, section 7, the due process clause.
Based on this limited analysis of the substantive limitations article I, section 11 was intended to place on the legislature, we announced a two-part test for implementing those substantive limitations:
"First, section 11 is satisfied if the law provides an injured person an effective and reasonable alternative remedy "by due course of law" for vindication of his constitutional interest. The benefit provided by the substitute must be substantially equal in value or other benefit to the remedy abrogated in providing essentially comparable substantive protection to one's person, property, or reputation, although the form of the substitute remedy may be different. . . ."
"Second, if there is no substitute or alternative remedy provided, abrogation of the remedy or cause of action may be justified only if there is a clear social or economic evil to be eliminated and the elimination of an existing legal remedy is not an arbitrary or unreasonable means for achieving the objective." Id. at 680.
We then applied this test to strike down the statutes of repose at issue in that case. Skipping the first prong of the analysis, Berry examined the objectives of the Products Liability Act and determined that the statutes of repose therein were unreasonable and arbitrary and did not further the statutory objectives. See id. at 681-83. Berry's analysis under the second prong illustrates that it is a very stringent test that gives little deference to the legislature. Although the legislature codified its legislative findings and the purpose of both statutes of repose, see Utah Code Ann. § 78-15-2 (1987) (repealed by Products Liability Statute of Limitation, ch. 119, § 3, 1989 Utah Laws 268), we quickly dispatched the legislature's justifications on the basis of several observations, including: (i) the arbitrary nature of the set time periods which applied to all products regardless of their useful life; (ii) our finding that while there may have been an increase in the number of products liability claims nationally, such was not the case in Utah at that time; (iii) the fact that " roduct liability insurance premiums for Utah manufacturing companies are established on the basis of nationwide data, not on a manufacturer's experience in Utah"; (iv) our finding that because products liability insurance is usually provided on an "occurrence" basis, the number of claims barred by the statutes of repose would be too small to impact insurance rates; and (v) the concern that the statutes of repose would reduce incentives to produce s
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