Opinion ID: 1156349
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Replacement of Auditor

Text: The remainder of DePond deals with removing the executive branch of government from their statutorily authorized auditing role. In this Court's opinion, where departments of the executive branch are not doing what we want them to do, we can take away their duties and give them to someone we appoint. In the present case, the auditor and governor were questioning the judicial pension system. The auditor was attempting to perform an auditory function with respect to the judicial pensions. Such oversight was not permitted by this Court. The majority removed the auditor from all meaningful oversight roles and converted him into a rubber stamp. In his place they put the court appointed administrative director of the Supreme Court. If the auditor should attempt to stray from his perfunctory role, he will be subject to writs of mandamus and personally liable for attorneys' fees. See majority opin. at 382, n. 33, supra. The governor is also subject to writs of mandamus. Article VII, Section 3 of the Constitution of West Virginia, when it refers to a court administrator, states as follows: The Court shall appoint an administrative director to serve at its pleasure at a salary to be fixed by the Court. The administrative director shall, at the direction of the chief justice, prepare and submit a budget for the Court. Nowhere in the Constitution or the statutes of the State of West Virginia is the administrative director of the Supreme Court given power to administer, through maintenance and certification, the Judicial Retirement System. That authority had been granted by statute to the auditor and the governor. The DePond decision transfers that authority to the administrative director of the Supreme Court and states that he shall certify to the auditor the records of each justice or judge in the system as they pertain to his tenure for retirement and the auditor must accept that as absolute and certify it back to the administrative director of the Supreme Court. Why bother? The administrative director of the Supreme Court is lord and master. To have a constitutional officer, i.e., the auditor certify something without any input into what he is certifying is unbelievable and unconscionable. The majority in DePond devotes at least one page of the opinion to citations stating that an administrative body must abide by the remedies and procedures it properly establishes to conduct its affairs. As far as I know there are no written administrative procedures or rules as to the requirements necessary to establish credited judicial service. This is merely left to the whim and desires of the judge or justice submitting them and they are certified by the Court administrator and submitted to the auditor. Note 25 of DePond says: Of course, for a judge to obtain certification of proof of creditable service by the administrative director of the Supreme Court of Appeals, proof of actual military and governmental service must be submitted under his rules. There being no rules, I must believe that not a single judge or justice can be certified under either Dostert or DePond to the auditor of the State of West Virginia. I assume if you make a statement enough times, and there is no challenge of that statement, it will eventually be taken as a true statement. Throughout both Dostert and DePond the majority continues to set out in various phrases, forms and innuendos that the terms of the Judicial Retirement System are embodied in that system's statute. The DePond decision is prophetic when it says on page 380: Terms of the retirement contract between members of the judiciary who participate in the Judicial Retirement System and the State of West Virginia are embodied in the provisions of the judges retirement system statute. That is as wrong as right is right. There are no statutes that provide a judicial retirement system as embodied in Dostert and DePond. Justice is depicted as a lady in flowing robes, blindfolded, arms outstretched, holding the scales of justice equally. After reading Dostert and DePond, she has lowered the scales to the ground to use her hands to wipe the tears from her blindfolded eyes.