Opinion ID: 2381515
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Statute Preempts the Common Law.

Text: First, I agree with my colleagues that, in this case, § 19-320(a) and the common law lead to the same result, even though they and I differ as to what that result should be. I also agree that the common law is a system of law not formalized by legislative action, not solidified but capable of growth at the hands of judges. Nelson v. Nelson, 548 A.2d 109, 112 & n. 3 (D.C.1988) (quoting Linkins v. Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Found., 87 U.S.App.D.C. 351, 354-55, 187 F.2d 357, 360-61 (1950)). But this court stated in Nelson, immediately before the language quoted by the majority, that  [i]n the absence of statutory enactment, this court will look to the common law. 548 A.2d at 112 (emphasis added). The italicized language is all-important. Where, as here, the legislature has spoken, it is not the business of judges to develop new common law doctrines independent of the statute. Surely my colleagues do not suggest that where a statutory enactment authorizes a particular result only in situations A, B, and C, a court which is not satisfied with this arrangement can order the same result in situation D by creative expansion of the common law or by some similar doctrine. If that is what the majority means, then today may become known as liberation day for judicial activism. We should recognize, as did the Supreme Court of West Virginia in construing its analogue to § 19-320(a), that by detailing the interests which the murderer is precluded from taking, the [l]egislature has in effect preempted the matter. State ex rel. Miller v. Sencindiver, 166 W.Va. 355, 275 S.E.2d 10, 14 (1981); cf. Cheatle v. Cheatle, 662 A.2d 1362, 1365, 1367 n. 5 (D.C.1995) (raising but not deciding the question whether § 19-320(a) preempts the common law). [9]