Opinion ID: 2609394
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Refund Is The Proper Remedy

Text: Although the majority found it unnecessary to reach the question of remedy, because it found no constitutional violation, I conclude once the violation is established a full refund is appropriate. Were we to call the remedy for this current application of an established principle to new facts retroactive, then so be it as the United States Supreme Court has upheld such retroactive effect as the general rule, unless each of the following conditions to justify an exception is satisfied: First, the decision to be applied nonretroactively must establish a new principle of law, either by overruling clear past precedent on which litigants may have relied, or by deciding an issue of first impression whose resolution was not clearly foreshadowed. Second, it has been stressed that we must ... weigh the merits and demerits in each case by looking to the prior history of the rule in question, its purpose and effect, and whether retrospective operation will further or retard its operation. Finally, we have weighed the inequity imposed by retroactive application, for [w]here a decision of this Court could produce substantial inequitable results if applied retroactively, there is ample basis in our cases for avoiding the `injustice or hardship' by a holding of nonretroactivity. Chevron Oil Co. v. Huson, 404 U.S. 97, 106-07, 92 S.Ct. 349, 30 L.Ed.2d 296 (1971) (quoting Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 629, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965) and Cipriano v. City of Houma, 395 U.S. 701, 706, 89 S.Ct. 1897, 23 L.Ed.2d 647 (1969)) (citations omitted). Clearly the ruling, as I would posit it, finds its specific source by, at least, 1987 in the Scheiner case, and a refund of every payment subsequent to that date is appropriate without necessity of further discussion. ALEXANDER, J., concurs.