State Ex Rel. Road Commission v. Parker
State Ex Rel. Road Commission v. Parker
Dissenting Opinion
(separately commenting on the dissent of Mr. Chief Justice WADE, supra).
I feel constrained to answer the dissent, without expecting my learned colleagues, who have concurred in the main opinion, to pass on the merits or demerits of the personal differences of opinion which Mr. Chief Justice WADE and I have harbored and do harbor here with respect to sovereign immunity and the authorities which
I note with interest that the Chief Justice refers to a dissenting opinion of Justice Wolfe in Bingham v. Board of Education, “where he advocated the complete overruling of sovereign immunity.” Advocacy for a personally desired result is a poor substitute for stare decisis, or for the emasculation of legislation which has been interpreted time and again by this court, and which I personally think construable differently than does.the Chief Justice. I submit that the authorities overwhelm his conclusion.
It is conceded that Muskopf v. Corning Hospital, cited in the dissent, is the closest case supporting Mr. Chief Justice WADE’S thesis, but the cases he urged in Springville Banking Co. v. Burton, Fairclough v. Salt Lake County and the others, it is submitted, did not and do not support his contention. In the Muskopf case, the main opinion, it is true, survived a strong and very convincing-dissent. That case heavily suggests judicial legislation, and shares Mr. Chief Justice WADE’S refusal to worship at the shrine of sovereign immunity, and equally and just as religiously refuses to do else but justify objectivity, with an irreverence for precedent. Although not binding on the California Supreme Court, nor this court, it is noteworthy that subsequent cases in the intermediate California appellate courts, seem to have interpreted the decision as not applicable to situations where the legislature has created the immunity or spoken with reference thereto.
Hargrove v. Cocoa Beach
Illinois abolished municipal immunity in Molitor v. Kaneland Community Unit Dist. No. 302,
The most recently expressed effort to eliminate sovereign immunity was reflected in Williams v. City of Detroit.
The writer is convinced that any drainage of taxpayers’ funds by abolition of the doctrine, is the subject of legislative attention in our tri-partite system of government,— not the courts. The legislature better may inventory the practical effects of creating a Pandora’s Box. The courts better may interpret, from a strictly judicial, not economic standpoint, the meaning and extent of legislation. As we have stated in other cases, damaged citizens are not wholly without redress in isolated cases, since under our same system of government, the legislature itself might grant relief to an applicant if his claim properly is processed through the Board of Examiners.
Neither the Florida nor Illinois decisions would be operative in the instant case, and it may be equally true of the California ruling. The Michigan decision, with ifs questionable reasoning, and its bitterly divided court, offers little argument to dispose of precedents of this jurisdiction, and to fly in the teeth of the majority rule.
The cases cited in the dissent’s footnote do not show any modern trend away from a sovereign immunity, as suggested by Mr. Chief Justice WADE. In our surrounding sister states, the cases quite definitely challenge and refute any such suggestion. Berger v. Dept. of Highways, 143 Colo. 246, 353 P.2d 612 (1960); Vendrell v. School Dist. No. 26C Malheur County, 360 P.2d 282 (Or.) (1961); Maffei v. Incorp. Town of Kemmerer, 80 Wyo. 33, 338 P.2d 808, 340 P.2d 759 (1959); Kilbourn v. City of Seattle, 43 Wash.2d 373, 261 P.2d 407 (1953); Livingston v. Regents of N. M. College of Agriculture, 64 N.M. 306, 328 P.2d 78 (1958). (Emphasis added.)
. Ngim v. City and County of San Francisco, Cal.App., 13 Cal.Rptr. 849 (1961); Akers v. City of Palo Alto, Cal.App., 14 Cal.Rptr. 767 (1961).
. Fla., 96 So.2d 130, 60 A.L.R.2d 1193 (1952).
. Fla., 115 So.2d 547 (1959).
. 118 So.2d 98 (D.C.App.Fla. 1960).
. 71 Fla. 356, 71 So. 372 (1916).
. 18 Ill.2d 11, 163 N.E.2d 89 (1959).
. Ill.Const. Art. 4, Sec. 26.
. Illinois Law Forum, 1961, p. 475; 54 North Western U.L.Rev. 588 (1959).
. 25 Ill.App.2d 56, 165 N.E. 724 (1960).
. 364 Mich. 231, 111 N.W.2d 1 (1961).
. Utah Constitution, Art. VII, See. 13; Title 63-6-1, Utah Code Annotated 1953.
Opinion of the Court
The subjoined sketch represents the overall property of Sine on the one hand and that described m the. condemnation complaint.
After the State filed its action, Sine sued the contractor doing the work in constructing the North-South highway, elevated on stilts to cross over the then existing East-West highway leading to California, to enjoin further construction already begun, and for damages arising out of the alleged interferences mentioned supra. A motion to dismiss that action was granted by the trial court on the asserted basis that Sine could litigate the issues in the State’s condemnation proceeding. The State, no party to that action, is not bound by that ruling, nor are we.
In a counterclaim filed in this case after the dismissal in the other case, Sine says that, 1) since he is a party to this action, he is entitled to damages as to “A,” although it was not described in the State’s complaint, nor was it the subject of condemnation; 2) that the counterclaim was proper under our rules of procedure, and 3) that the damages alleged are compensable in the instant action.
Contention 2) relates to procedure and joinder of parties. It does not go to the question of whether Sine has a compensable claim against the State, and therefore, for the purposes of this case, .need not be canvassed, but may be conceded as having merit.
Contentions 1) and 3) may be viewed in the aggregate, since both pose the same fundamental question whether the State is suable for consequential damage to property not sought for condemnation.
On numerous occasions we have held that such damage is not recoverable because of the State’s immunity. Fairclough v. Salt Lake County,
As to Sine’s argument that he, being a defendant, may counterclaim and recover, is answerable by the simple and authoritative conclusions that neither under our rules or elsewhere, can a counterclaim-ant cast himself in any other role than that of a plaintiff.
If the State were not suable in this case in the first instance, it is not suable by counter-complaint, and we so hold.
. Title 78-34-7, Utah Code Annotated 1953: “All persons in occupation of, or having or claiming an interest in, any of the property described in the complaint,
. Taylor v. Barker, 70 Utah 534, 262 P. 266, 55 A.L.R. 1032 (1927), wherein the court said that “The law is well settled that as a general rule a judgment is effective only between the parties to the action and their privies, and that no rights whatever, either in favor [of] or against strangers to the judgment, are acquired, lost, or affected by reason of the judgment.”
. 10 Utah 2d 417, 354 P.2d 105 (1960).
. Valley Gin Co. v. McCarthy, 56 Ariz. 181, 106 P.2d 504 (1940): “The term (counterclaim) is a general and comprehensive one and may be defined as a cause of action in favor of defendant upon which he might have sued the plaintiif and recovered judgment in a separate action.” Wilson v. Tromly, 404 Ill. 307, 89 N.E.2d 22 (1949); 47 Am. Jur. 736, Sec. 37.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting).
I dissent, adhering to my views expressed in Springville Banking Company v. Burton,
. Springville Banking Co. v. Burton, 10 Utah 2d 100, 349 P.2d 157.
. Fairclough v. Salt Lake County, 10 Utah 2d 417, 354 P.2d 105.
. Section 22, Article I, Constitution of Utah.
. See Justice Wolfe’s dissenting opinion in Bingham v. Board of Education, 118 Utah 582, 223 P.2d 432, where he advocated the complete overruling of sov
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE of Utah, by and Through Its ROAD COMMISSION, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Joseph A. PARKER Et Al., Jerry Sine and Dora Ann P. Sine, His Wife, Defendants and Respondents
- Cited By
- 19 cases
- Status
- Published