Opinion ID: 1974255
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Change in the Age of Majority

Text: Dube also argues that Rule 18(a) is either in conflict with, or was impliedly amended by, chapter 598 of the Public Laws of 1971, section 8 of which amended 1 M.R.S.A. § 73 to provide as follows, effective June 9, 1972: The common law rule that a person is a minor to the age of 20 is abrogated and persons 18 years of age or over are declared to be of majority for all purposes. [2] In effect, the question raised by Dube is whether the words for all purposes in 1 M.R.S.A. § 73 (1979) extends the scope of the reduction in age to include Rule 18(a) of the Public Utilities Commission. [3] In a different context, the question of implied amendment by § 73 was noted, but not decided, by this Court in Baril v. Baril, Me., 354 A.2d 392, 397 n. 3 (1976). Besides amending 1 M.R.S.A. § 73, the Maine statute, P.L.1971, ch. 598, expressly lowered the age limit specified in many provisions of the Revised Statutes, both provisions where the stated age limit is directly related to the special status of minors [4] and provisions where such a relationship is not evident. [5] The 1971 statute did not set forth exceptions: we cannot infer, by applying the canon of exclusion, that the statute impliedly includes a particular statutory age limit because it does not come within some exception provided in the statute. [6] Considered in its entirety, the scheme of the 1971 act does not manifest a legislative purpose to lower every existing age limit in the statute books to 18. Rather, the purpose was to provide generally in section 73 of title 1 for lowering the age of majority to 18, reconciling the age provisions of the many statutes that would otherwise become inconsistent or anomalous and lowering other statutory limits only as specifically identified in the various sections of the act. A similar approach should be followed with regard to the asserted amendment of Rule 18(a) by implication from the enactment of the 1971 statute. If it were shown that the Commission had set its minimum age limit for drivers of commercial carriers at 21 with the purpose of making that limit accord with the statutory age of majority, there would be room for argument that Rule 18(a) should come within the scope of the language for all other purposes in section 73. However, there is nothing to suggest that such was the case. [7] The history of Rule 18(a) and its predecessors, outlined earlier, shows clearly that in promulgating and from time to time amending the rule the Commission was not acting on the basis of the common law age of majority but on its consideration of the exigencies of driving commercial carriers, and that it borrowed the 21-year age minimum established by the federal authorities for drivers of similar carriers in interstate commerce. As a result, the minimum of 21 in Rule 18(a) was not affected by the 1971 amendment of 1 M.R.S.A. § 73. We conclude that Rule 18(a) of the Public Utilities Commission was within the Commission's authority to promulgate, that it does not offend the Constitution either on its face or in its application here, and that it was not amended by implication or invalidated when the Legislature lowered the age of majority to eighteen. The entry is: Appeals denied. Judgments affirmed.