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Price v. Philip Morris12/15/2005
es an interpretation that produces broader coverage or more inclusive application of statutory concepts. [Citation.] Liberal construction is ordinarily one that makes a statute apply to more things or in more situations than would be the case under strict construction. [Citation.] ` " ` iberal construction' means to give the language the language of a statutory provision, freely and consciously, its commonly, generally accepted meaning, to the end that the most comprehensive application thereof may be accorded, without doing violence to any of its terms." ' [Citation.]" Board of Education of Community Consolidated School District No. 59 v. State Board of Education, 317 Ill. App. 3d 790, 795 (2000).
Accord Smith v. Stevens, 82 Ill. 554, 556 (1876) (observing that statute "is emphatically a remedial act, and, in accordance with a well established canon, it must receive a liberal construction, and made to apply to all cases which, by a fair construction of its terms, it can be made to reach"); 3 N. Singer, Southerland on Statutory Construction §58:2, at 88 (6th ed. 2001); 73 Am. Jur. 2d Statutes §179 (2001). Thus, section 11a of the Consumer Fraud Act actually directs courts to employ judicial construction to supply gaps in the statutory language, in order to afford broader coverage or a more inclusive application. Bank One Milwaukee v. Sanchez, 336 Ill. App. 3d 319, 321-22, 324 (2003); Hurlbert v. Cottier, 56 Ill. App. 3d 893, 896 (1978).
In this case, however, rather than using judicial construction to effectuate expansive coverage of the Consumer Fraud Act, the court employs arduous judicial construction to establish limitations on the reach of the Act. The court breaks down the statutory term "specifically authorized by laws administered by" and, with the aid of a dictionary, separately and in a vacuum defines the word "specific" and the word "authorize." Slip op. at 49. Based on this dissection, the court speculates that the legislature "must have intended" the phrase "laws administered by" to require deference to agency policy and practice. Slip op. at 49-50. I disagree with this interpretation. Courts have long recognized that ascertaining legislative intent is not always properly accomplished by mechanically applying the dictionary definitions of individual words and phrases. See, e.g., Whelan v. County Officers' Electoral Board, 256 Ill. App. 3d 555, 558 (1994). As Judge Learned Hand observed:
"Of course it is true that the words used, even in their literal sense, are the primary, and ordinarily the most reliable, source of interpreting the meaning of any writing *. But it is one of the surest indexes of a mature and developed jurisprudence not to make a fortress out of the dictionary; but to remember that statutes always have some purpose or object to accomplish *." Cabell v. Markham, 148 F.2d 737, 739 (2d Cir. 1945).
The court's tortured construction of section 10b(1) ignores the rule that statutes are to be construed as a whole, and the fact that expansive construction of the Act comes from the Act itself.
Even more disturbing than the dissection of the statutory language of section 10b(1) is the court's speculation as to the "apparent legislative intent." Slip op. at 50. The court states that section 10b(1):
"serves to channel objections to agency policy and practice into the political process rather than into the courts. [Citations.] Parties who desire to bring about change in agency policies or rules can take their complaints to the agency itself and can participate in the formal rulemaking process. If their concerns are not addressed by the agency, they may seek assistance from their legislators and may use the political proces
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