Opinion ID: 2590190
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: constitutionality of sections 63-30-4 and 63-30-34

Text: ¶ 25 Based on Utah Code Ann. § 63-30-4(4), the trial court dismissed plaintiffs' negligence actions against Chief Burton, and based on Utah Code Ann. § 63-30-34, that court cut the damages the jury awarded plaintiffs and entered judgment against the District for the statutory limit of $250,000 for each plaintiff. Thus, plaintiffs were denied any remedy for their personal injuries against Chief Burton and given only a partial remedy against the District. The reason for plaintiffs' appeals, therefore, is that they have been denied the full amount of damages the jury awarded them for the severe injuries they suffered. They argue that (1) the abrogation of their remedy for damages against Chief Burton as an individual and (2) the limitation on the amount of damages awarded against the District are unconstitutional. Specifically, plaintiffs contend that Utah Code Ann. § 63-30-34, which sets a cap on damage awards against government agencies, [6] is unconstitutional under Article I, section 11, the open courts provision, and Article I, section 24, the uniform operation of the laws provision. Plaintiffs also contend that Utah Code Ann. § 63-30-4(4), which bars all actions for injuries inflicted by government employees in their individual capacities by way of negligence, gross negligence, and recklessness, [7] is unconstitutional under the same two provisions. ¶ 26 A just and peaceful society must secure by law the fundamental rights of all its citizens. Among the basic rights protected by the Utah Declaration of Rights are the right to be free from physical harm inflicted by others, the right to acquire and own property, and the right of people to be free from injury to their reputations. The civil and criminal laws protect those interests in different ways. Criminal law sanctions are primarily designed to protect society at large. Those sanctions do not restore to a person wronged by another the losses inflicted on one's person or property. Imprisonment protects against further violations, and criminal fines inure to the benefit of the state, not the victim. Criminal law remedies do nothing to provide restorative or compensatory justice to persons wronged by others; that objective is left to the civil law to accomplish. Thus, while the criminal and civil law are separate bodies of law, they are also complementary components of a system of justice designed to safeguard the peace and safety of society. Ordinarily, restorative justice can be accomplished, even if only approximately, by money compensation for losses inflicted on one's person, property, or reputation. ¶ 27 Unless the law allows a person the right to vindicate in a court of law injuries to his person, property, and good name and status in the community, resort to self-help will inevitably occur and result in violence. Thus, the right to restorative or compensatory justice is indispensable to the security of the individual and the security of society itself. Under the Utah Constitution, that right is protected from arbitrary and unreasonably discriminatory laws. ¶ 28 Prior opinions of this Court have recounted the long Anglo-American history of the principles protected by Article I, section 11 of the Utah Declaration of Rights. The right of access to the courts and to a civil remedy to redress injuries, which Article I, section 11 protects, is fundamental in Anglo-American law. See Craftsman Builder's Supply v. Butler Mfg., 1999 UT 18, ¶¶ 32-54, 974 P.2d 1194 (Stewart, J., concurring); see also Berry v. Beech Aircraft, 717 P.2d 670 (Utah 1985). The importance of these rights and their roots in English law were examined by Lord Coke and Sir William Blackstone centuries ago. The principle that a person is entitled to access to the courts for a civil remedy is not only the basis of an individual right, but is also a keystone of the independence of the judiciary as a co-equal branch of government. See Craftsman, 1999 UT 18 at ¶¶ 32-54, 974 P.2d at 1203-10 (Stewart, J., concurring). ¶ 29 Indeed, that right is of increasing importance in the modern world. Politically powerful special interest groups pursuing their self-interests have from time to time sought to commandeer the law to advance their self-interests at the expense of a citizen's right to restorative justice by abrogating remedies essential to the protection of persons, property, and reputation. See id. The need to protect the right of access to the courts led the framers of the Utah and some thirty-eight other state constitutions to adopt open courts provisions, which had their origins in England and in this country in the constitutions of the first thirteen states. See id. ¶ 30 The legislative impetus to abrogate those rights has occurred from time to time because of majoritarian indifference and even hostility to the plight of those whose fundamental rights are harmed and whose only recourse is a judicial remedy. By and large, persons who suffer serious personal or property injuries are an isolated and unidentifiable minority who have little influence on legislative actions. These considerations were instrumental in the adoption of open courts clauses in a number of state constitutions. See id. As Justice Zimmerman trenchantly observed in his concurring opinion in Condemarin v. University Hospital, 775 P.2d 348, 367 (Utah 1989): The constitution's drafters understood that the normal political processes would not always protect the common law rights of all citizens to obtain remedies for injuries. See Berry, 717 P.2d at 676; cf. Developments in the Law: The Interpretation of State Constitutional Rights, 95 Harv. L.Rev. 1324, 1498-1502 (1982) (protection of majority from politically powerful minorities as an approach to state constitutional interpretation); Note, State Economic Substantive Due Process: A Proposed Approach, 88 Yale L.J. 1487, 1498 (1979) (perfunctory judicial review is inadequate to protect against special interest legislation). At any one time, only a small percentage of the citizenry will have recently been harmed and therefore will need to obtain a remedy from the members of any particular defendant class. The vast majority of the populace will have no interest in opposing legislative efforts to protect such a defendant class because the majority will not readily identify with those few persons unlucky enough to have been harmed. And those few persons directly affected will, in all likelihood, lack the political power to prevent the passage of legislation that, in essence, requires every member of the citizenry who is injured by members of the defendant class to bear some or all of the cost of those injuries. Id. at 367.