Opinion ID: 2165690
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Was the Bureau's Action Privileged?

Text: As noted before, the general assembly has authorized any licensed racetrack in this state to refuse admission to or to eject from its premises any persons who it believes is undesirable and whose presence is inconsistent with the proper conduct of a racing meet. The bureau claims that this provision immunizes it from any liability because of the action of its agent-in-charge and the two detectives. We do not subscribe to this theory. In our opinion the statute is clear and unambiguous. It gives a duly licensed racetrack the right under certain circumstances to refuse admission to its premises and to eject therefrom various individuals. The legislature did not, however, grant the track any right to detain these people. Instead it vested in the track the sole discretion to determine if it would bar a person seeking admittance to the racetrack enclosure or to remove him if he had gained entrance. The legislature has stated that the track may eject any person who, in its sole judgment is    undesirable, and whose presence is inconsistent with the orderly and proper conduct of such race meeting. The use of the term sole judgment precludes us from reading into the act a further legislative grant whereby the track could detain a person while it investigates his activities. Any attempt by this court to read into this statute an additional right by the track to detain a suspected patron in the light of the language used by the general assembly would smack of judicial legislation. If § 41-3-17, as amended, is to authorize the detention of a racing patron, such a right must spring from some future legislative action and not this court. The ejection statute affords no protective shield for defendants' liability for the false imprisonment of Webbier.