Opinion ID: 2023926
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Lake County Magistrate Act

Text: Matheney claims that Indiana Code § 33-5-29.5-7.1, -7.2 (West 1996), which creates the position that Magistrate Page occupied in this case, violates Article III, Section 1; [3] Article VII, Section 1; [4] and Article VII, Section 4, [5] of Indiana's Constitution. Matheney argues that because all judicial authority rests with the Supreme Court, the legislature cannot create the position of magistrate and confer judicial authority upon it. Only the Supreme Court, Matheney argues, has the power to supervise the lower courts, and thus to create magisterial positions when the need arises therein. These claims remind us of a dispute over legislative and judicial authority in the last century. In 1881 the Supreme Court's docket was overburdened with a backlog of cases two-years deep. To provide relief, the General Assembly passed an act which allowed the Court to appoint five commissioners for two year terms under such rules and regulations as the Court shall adopt, to aid and assist the Court in the performance of its duties. Act of April 14, 1881, § 1, 1881 Ind. Acts 92, 92; 1 Leander J. Monks, Courts and Lawyers of Indiana 298-99 (1916). The Supreme Court assigned cases to the commissioners, but had final approval over each opinion. Monks, supra, at 299. This arrangement was renewed for another two years in 1883, Act of March 3, 1883, § 1, 1883 Ind. Acts 77, 77, and by 1885 the congestion of the docket was alleviated. See Monks, supra, at 299. In 1889 the docket was again congested, and for a second time an appeal was made to the Legislature to provide some relief. Id. The legislature passed a bill nearly identical to the 1881 act, but with one important difference: the General Assembly, and not the Court, was to appoint the commissioners. Act of Feb. 22, 1889, § 1, 1889 Ind. Acts 41, 41. The Supreme Court, finding that this modification violated article III, section 1, and article VII, section 1, of Indiana's Constitution, quickly declared the act unconstitutional. State, ex rel. Hovey v. Noble, 118 Ind. 350, 21 N.E. 244 (1889). Magistrates such as Page are not appointed by the legislature or the governor, but by the judiciary, and their appointment is not even mandated, see Ind.Code Ann. §§ 33-4-7-1, 33-5-29.5-7.2 (West 1996), unlike the commissioners of the 1881 act. See Act of April 14, 1881, § 1, 1881 Ind. Acts ch. 17, § 1, 92, 92. The provisions in the Indiana Code under which Magistrate Page acted merely allowed him to conduct the preliminary proceedings and hearing as a gatherer of facts, but did not allow him to issue a final appealable order. See Ind.Code Ann. § 33-4-7-4, -7, -8 (West Supp.1992) (amended 1993). Only Judge Conroy could, and did, ( see P.C.R. at 945), issue the final appealable order, and did not do so in an uninformed or cavalier manner. [6] We find the magistrate provisions at issue in this case reminiscent of the acceptable legislative assistance provided in the acts of 1881 and 1883, and not the encroachment on the judiciary found in the act of 1889. Accordingly, we hold the magistrate act constitutional as it operated in this case. [7]