Opinion ID: 466344
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Abolition of Vested Rights

Text: 11 The Supreme Court has found in certain cases that vested rights created by statute cannot be abridged by a subsequent statute that effectively takes away accrued causes of action to enforce those rights. The principal cases striking down retroactive abridgment involved statutes that created rights vesting in: a corporate charter, Coombes v. Getz, 285 U.S. at 439-48, 52 S.Ct. at 435-38; real property, Ettor v. Tacoma, 228 U.S. at 155-58, 33 S.Ct. at 430-31; and a quasi-contract, Steamship Co. v. Joliffe, 69 U.S. (2 Wall.) 450, 456-58, 17 L.Ed. 805 (1864). Cf. Richmond Screw Anchor Co. v. United States, 275 U.S. 331, 48 S.Ct. 194, 72 L.Ed. 303 (1928) (rights in a patent); Forbes Pioneer Boat Line v. Board of Comm'rs, 258 U.S. 338, 339-40, 42 S.Ct. 325, 325-26, 66 L.Ed. 647 (1922) (rights to a fixed sum of money); Ochoa v. Hernandez, 230 U.S. 139, 161-64, 33 S.Ct. 1033, 1041-42, 57 L.Ed. 1427 (1913) (rights in real property). In these cases, because the rights had vested in real property, a contract, or in a fixed sum, they were said to stand independent of the statute that created them and could not be abridged by the subsequent statute. Coombes, 285 U.S. at 442, 52 S.Ct. at 436; Ettor, 228 U.S. at 156, 33 S.Ct. at 430; Joliffe, 69 U.S. at 458. In none of these cases was any right to a tort cause of action, or a right deriving from a tort, held to be vested. The Supreme Court in Ettor, 228 U.S. at 157-58, 33 S.Ct. at 431, heavily relied on by the plaintiffs, expressly distinguished the action for an injury to property involved in that case from one in tort. Cf. Louisiana v. Mayor of New Orleans, 109 U.S. 285, 3 S.Ct. 211, 27 L.Ed. 936 (1883) (a state that limits a city's tax collecting power to such an extent that the city cannot pay a tort judgment against it does not violate the judgment holder's fourteenth amendment rights). 12 The present case involves common-law and state statutory tort rights that are nothing like the vested rights of the Coombes, Ettor, and Joliffe cases relied on by the plaintiff. Moreover, these are old cases and their rationales are not easy to reconcile or apply. In fact, their vitality may now be in doubt because more recent cases have upheld retroactive application of statutes that abridge economic and real property rights created under a prior statute without always carefully distinguishing the older cases. See, e.g., Welch v. Henry, 305 U.S. 134, 144, 146-51, 59 S.Ct. 121, 125-27, 83 L.Ed. 87 (1938); Graham & Foster v. Goodcell, 282 U.S. 409, 426-32, 51 S.Ct. 186, 192-95, 75 L.Ed. 415 (1931); United States v. Heinszen & Co., 206 U.S. 370, 386-91, 27 S.Ct. 742, 746-58, 51 L.Ed. 1098 (1907); Moss v. Hawaiian Dredging Co., 187 F.2d 442, 444-47 (9th Cir.1951); Battaglia v. General Motors Corp., 169 F.2d 254, 257-62 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 335 U.S. 887, 69 S.Ct. 236, 93 L.Ed. 425 (1948); Woods v. Schmid, 164 F.2d 981, 982-83 (5th Cir.1947); United States v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 435 F.Supp. 1009, 1029-31 (D.Alaska 1977), aff'd, 612 F.2d 1132 (9th Cir.1980); Asselta v. 149 Madison Avenue Corp., 79 F.Supp. 413, 415-16 (S.D.N.Y.1948); Hospital Data Center of S.C., Inc. v. United States, 634 F.2d 541, 544-45, 225 Ct.Cl. 158 (1980); but cf. United States Trust Co. of New York v. New Jersey, 431 U.S. 1, 17-28, 97 S.Ct. 1505, 1515-20, 52 L.Ed.2d 92 (1977) (applying an intermediate standard of review to strike down under the contracts clause a repeal of a statutory covenant that provided security for bondholders). 13 The question whether the rights asserted in plaintiff's state-law causes of action are vested cannot be answered by looking to see whether suit had already been filed and how far it had proceeded when Congress enacted Sec. 2212. No person has a vested interest in any rule of law entitling him to insist that it shall remain unchanged for his benefit. New York Central R.R. Co. v. White, 243 U.S. 188, 198, 37 S.Ct. 247, 250, 61 L.Ed. 667 (1917); Duke Power Co. v. Carolina Environmental Study Group, Inc., 438 U.S. 59, 88 n. 32, 98 S.Ct. 2620, 2638 n. 32, 57 L.Ed.2d 595 (1978); Second Employers' Liability Cases, 223 U.S. 1, 50, 32 S.Ct. 169, 175, 56 L.Ed. 327 (1912); Ducharme v. Merrill-National Laboratories, 574 F.2d 1307, 1309 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1002, 99 S.Ct. 612, 58 L.Ed.2d 677 (1978). This is true after suit has been filed and continues to be true until a final, unreviewable judgment is obtained. Chief Justice Marshall first announced the principle in The Schooner Peggy, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 103, 110, 2 L.Ed. 49 (1801). The Supreme Court held in that case that a court must apply the law in force at the time of its decision, even if it is hearing the case on appeal from a judgment entered pursuant to a prior law. For a more recent and stringent application of this rule, see 149 Madison Avenue Corp. v. Asselta, 331 U.S. 795, 67 S.Ct. 1726, 91 L.Ed. 1822 (1947), modifying 331 U.S. 199, 67 S.Ct. 1178, 91 L.Ed. 1432 (1947). 2 14 Because rights in tort do not vest until there is a final, unreviewable judgment, Congress abridged no vested rights of the plaintiff by enacting Sec. 2212 and retroactively abolishing her cause of action in tort.