Opinion ID: 2356966
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The State Constitutional Question

Text: When considering the propriety of de novo review, we must first determine whether the board or agency being reviewed was acting in an administrative or judicial capacity. For, while de novo review is generally precluded in the former instance, it can be allowed in the latter. In re Stephens v. Unified School Dist. No. 500, 218 Kan. 220, 546 P.2d 197 (1975); Francisco v. Board of Directors, 85 Wash.2d 575, 537 P.2d 789 (1975). It has long been established in Rhode Island that administrative proceedings to discipline or remove police officers for cause are judicial or quasi-judicial in nature. Carroll v. Goldstein, 100 R.I. 550, 217 A.2d 676 (1966); Gartsu v. Coleman, 82 R.I. 103, 106 A.2d 248 (1954); Garvin v. McCarthy, 39 R.I. 365, 97 A. 881 (1916). This is because the officer may not be discharged except upon a showing of cause. [3] Moreover, a long line of cases recognizes the General Assembly's broad control in matters relating to the municipal operation of police and fire departments. See Marro v. General Treasurer, 108 R.I. 192, 273 A.2d 660 (1971), and cases cited therein. Certainly it is within the Legislature's power to prescribe the mode of appeal from a city or town's personnel board of review. Due to the judicial nature of the proceedings, the General Assembly could have provided for original suit in the Superior Court or any other court. See In re Stephens v. Unified School Dist. No. 500, supra . The Legislature's decision to provide for de novo review appeal does not make the proceedings before the administrative board any less judicial. Civil Serv. Comm'n v. Matlock, 205 Ark. 286, 168 S.W.2d 424 (1943). Prior to the enactment of § 45-20-1.1, police officers aggrieved by decisions of local police bureaus obtained review by way of certiorari to Superior Court. Public Laws 1948, ch. 2083. Section 45-20-1.1, however, is an indication that the General Assembly considered the discipline and removal of police officers sufficiently important to warrant a redetermination of fact and law by a trial court unfettered by possible prejudices that might exist at the municipal level. Professor Louis L. Jaffe, one of the foremost authorities on administrative law, concludes in his book on Judicial Control of Administrative Action that the Legislature should be free to vest the courts with, de novo review of agency proceedings in those situations where the Legislature feels the special safeguards of the judicial process should be available. Generally courts defer to the factfinding role the Legislature has given to administrative agencies, but no such constraint logically should exist where the legislature itself has granted the courts a fact-finding role in their review of administrative action. Matanuska-Susitna Borough v. Lum, 538 P.2d 994, 1001 (Alaska 1975). We have examined numerous cases dealing with a purported unconstitutional grant of nonjudicial functions to the judiciary. Some which seem directly on point and hold such a grant unconstitutional we find distinguishable on the grounds that the holdings are based on the premise that the actions of the lower tribunal are ministerial, executive or administrative in nature. See City of Aurora v. Schoberlein, 230 Ill. 496, 82 N.E. 860 (1907); State ex rel. McGinnis v. Police Civil Serv. Comm'n, 253 Minn. 62, 91 N.W.2d 154 (1958); City of Meridian v. Davidson, 211 Miss. 683, 53 So.2d 48 (1951). Others which reject de novo review but uphold a more limited review we find unpersuasive. [4] On the other hand, statutory grants of de novo review have been upheld in several states when attacked on constitutional grounds. Ex parte Darnell, 262 Ala. 71, 76 So.2d 770 (1954) (dismissal of city detective); Matanuska-Susitna Borough v. Lum, supra (dismissal of tenured teacher); Civil Serv. Comm'n v. Matlock, supra (chief of police reduced in rank); Osborne v. Bullitt County Bd. of Educ., 415 S.W.2d 607 (Ky.1967) (discharge of school teacher); Francisco v. Board of Directors, supra (discharge of school teacher). In each of these cases the courts found the de novo review did not violate the separation of power doctrine. Once the disciplinary hearing is characterized as a judicial function, the breadth of remedies that the Legislature has bestowed upon the Superior Court is immaterial. Thus, we would parenthetically point out that any questions as to this aspect of the Act pertain to legislative wisdom rather than the statute's constitutionality. From the foregoing analysis we conclude that the de novo review afforded in § 45-20-1.1 is constitutional and does not violate the doctrine of separation of powers. We answer the question certified to us in the negative.