Opinion ID: 1245439
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the constitutional question resolved

Text: The appellee Worker's Compensation Division argues that § 27-54, supra, was legitimately enacted under the State's general police power. Against the police power of the State  strong as it is  there are set various boundaries within which the State may exercise its power and outside of which it may not trespass. The police power of the State has its limitations in the due-process clauses of the State and Federal Constitutions. The late Justice Blume said in his learned opinion in State v. Langley, 53 Wyo. 332, 334, 84 P.2d 767, 770: ... So, in Commonwealth v. Alger, 7 Cush., Mass., 53, decided in 1853, and in Thorpe v. Rutland R.R. Co., 27 Vt. 140, 62 Am.Dec. 625, decided in 1855, it was held that the police power is not unlimited. That rule came soon to be fixed more definitely, and in Wynehamer v. People, 1856, 13 N.Y. 378 the court decided that the police power is definitely limited by the constitutional provision for due process, and that that provision has, accordingly, a substantive aspect as well as a procedural one. See Mott, Due Process of Law, 313-317. That is the view which has been maintained by the courts ever since that time, and so we find it stated as a general rule that it has reference also to the enactments of the legislature. 12 C.J. 1190. The police power also has its limitation in Article 1, Section 7, of our Constitution, which provides that: Absolute, arbitrary power over the lives, liberty and property of freemen exists nowhere in a republic, not even in the largest majority. Where the courts must referee a contest in which due-process rights of the individual are in apposition with the police power of the state, the standard against which the ultimate decision must be tested is that of reasonableness, and what is reasonable depends upon the facts and circumstances. State v. Langley, supra . We said in Langley, supra, at 53 Wyo. 334, 84 P.2d 771: In order that a statute may be valid, the purpose, aim, or end thereof must be within the scope or purview of the police power, and in furtherance thereof; ... 12 C.J. 929, 930; State v. Buck Mercantile Co., 38 Wyo. 47, 264 P. 1023, 57 A.L.R. 675... . Interpolated and applied to the matter at hand, this rule says that the purpose, aim, and end of § 27-54, supra, which takes a part of the injured worker's third-party recovery and deposits it into the Industrial Accident Fund, must be such a law as the state has a right to enact. In other words, for the statute to pass the test of validity, the enactment may not be one which unlawfully invades the worker's due-process guarantees. It is said in 16 C.J.S. Constitutional Law § 70, p. 189: ... [I]t has frequently been held or recognized that a state constitution is not a grant or delegation of power, but is a limitation or restriction of power... . This is the rule adopted by the decisions of this court. In State v. Snyder, Treasurer, 29 Wyo. 199, 222-223, 212 P. 771, 779, we referred with approval to the court's opinion in Wheeler v. Weightman, 96 Kan. 50, 149 P. 977, L.R.A. 1916A, 846, where the Kansas court said: `... The state governments possess all governmental power not denied to them by the Constitution, and in the absence of a prohibition expressed or necessarily implied they may take all reasonable measures for the promotion of the general welfare. . . .' We went on to say in Snyder : The Legislature in this state possesses all legislative authority except as restricted by the state or federal Constitution, either expressly or by clear implication. Achenbach v. Kincaid, 25 Idaho, 768, 140 P. 529; Williams v. Evans, 139 Minn. 32, 165 N.W. 495, 166 N.W. 504, L.R.A. 1918F, 542.... [8] Applied to the instant case, this means that § 27-54, supra, may not have the effect of limiting recovery for injury or death unless we are able to find where the 1914 amendment to Article 10, Section 4, makes an exception to the original and existing prohibitions against the enactment of such legislation. If such an exception is not to be found, the legislature lacks power to enact a law allowing the State to participate in third-party recovery which is violative of the specific prohibitory provisions of the first two sentences of Article 10, Section 4, supra.