Opinion ID: 2631820
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Statute Produces an Absurd Result

Text: ¶ 17 The State argues that our inquiry into voter intent must end with the statutory text because it is unambiguous and produces neither an absurd nor an irrational result. A result is absurd `if it is so irrational, unnatural, or inconvenient that it cannot be supposed to have been within the intention of persons with ordinary intelligence and discretion.' Perini Land Dev. Co. v. Pima County, 170 Ariz. 380, 383, 825 P.2d 1, 4 (1992) (quoting Bussanich v. Douglas, 152 Ariz. 447, 449-50, 733 P.2d 644, 646-47 (App.1986), finding absurd a construction that would result in disparate treatment between public and private employees under the State's workers' compensation scheme, despite statutory use of the phrase private employment); see also, e.g., Wheeler v. Yuma Sch. Dist. No. One, 156 Ariz. 102, 107, 750 P.2d 860, 865 (1988) (finding that limiting the statutory term classroom performance to a teacher's conduct in the classroom would produce the irrational result that a teacher who mistreats students on the playground would not be entitled to the same notice and opportunity to cure as a teacher whose misconduct takes place in the classroom). The statute in Wheeler, as here, was entirely silent as to the specific actions charged against the defendant. ¶ 18 In both Estrada and Hatton, the court of appeals justifiably found it irrational to permit incarceration for possession of minor paraphernalia and to prohibit incarceration for the more serious crime of actual drug possession or use. The State has suggested no rationale for this inconsistent result, nor do we perceive any reasonable basis for it. See State v. Rodriguez, 153 Ariz. 182, 186-87, 735 P.2d 792, 796-97 (1987) (finding it inconceivable that the legislature could have intended the result that greater punishments attend less serious crimes).