Opinion ID: 2356966
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Judicial as it is used in contexts other than the separation of powers.

Text: A body may be deemed to carry out judicial functions in one sense if it is under a duty to follow procedures which are normally thought of as judicial in nature. In Aniello v. Marcello, 91 R.I. 198, 162 A.2d 270 (1960), we held that a statute empowering an administrative agency to remove a public employee for cause indicated a legislative intent that the agency act in a judicial, or at least in a quasi-judicial, capacity. Id. at 207, 162 A.2d at 274. By this we meant, the opinion goes on to explain, the employee must be given a hearing, and substantial grounds for dismissal established by legally sufficient evidence must be produced. But we did not say that a court could constitutionally perform the agency's function. A legislative direction to an agency to follow certain procedures cannot enlarge the constitutional power of the judiciary. As was said in a related case involving the removal of teachers: The field of judicial inquiry is not enlarged in the case of discharge of teachers for cause, essentially an executive function, by the fact that a legislative act requires such court trappings as formal charges, notice, and a hearing. State ex rel. Ging v. Board of Educ., 213 Minn. 550, 570, 7 N.W.2d 544, 555 (1942). Another case using the term judicial in the above sense is Gartsu v. Coleman, 82 R.I. 103, 106 A.2d 248 (1954). There, a captain in the Woonsocket Police Department was demoted to patrolman by the Board of Police Commissioners of that city. No notice or hearing was given to him. Prior judicial interpretation of the governing statute established that notice and hearing were required if the board acted in a judicial, as opposed to administrative, capacity in ordering the demotion. This court held that since the board's action was intended as punishment, it was acting in a judicial capacity and therefore was required to give the captain notice and a hearing. Judicial, in this sense, has nothing to do with the separation of powers of government. This court did not characterize the decision of the police commissioners as judicial for the purpose of determining whether a court could undertake to make that decision itself. The question of a court making decisions that were the sole preserve of the executive was not at issue. This court in Gartsu was concerned solely with whether the action of the commissioners had been sufficiently judicial to necessitate certain procedural safeguards. That we deemed the police commissioners' action judicial in the above sense does not bear, in my opinion, on whether it would be judicial in the constitutional sense relevant to the inquiry here. See also Morgan v. Thomas, 98 R.I. 204, 200 A.2d 696 (1964); Hanna v. Board of Aldermen, 54 R.I. 392, 173 A. 358 (1934). The terms judicial or quasi-judicial are used in a second sense to describe functions which, although performed by the executive or legislative branch, are nonetheless subject to a limited review in the courts by a writ of certiorari. Riccio v. Town Council, 109 R.I. 431, 286 A.2d 881 (1972); Carroll v. Goldstein, 100 R.I. 550, 217 A.2d 676 (1966); Beauregard v. Town Council, 82 R.I. 244, 107 A.2d 283 (1954). In Carroll v. Goldstein, supra , the issue before this court was whether a Providence police officer could obtain review of his dismissal by way of certiorari. We said there that: [The commissioner] ordered a hearing, judicial in nature, and the decision resulting therefrom being unfavorable to the accused is a proper subject for review in this court by way of certiorari. Id. at 556, 217 A.2d at 680. We did not decide that the action of the commissioner was judicial in the sense that it could be made by a court in the first instance; we decided only that his action was sufficiently judicial to meet the common law requirement of a limited review by certiorari. The two are not the same. If they were, it would follow that a court could constitutionally hear de novo all of the administrative decisions which are presently subject to review by certiorari. I cannot accept such an expansive view of the judicial role. This distinction was recognized by the court in Sellin v. City of Duluth, 248 Minn. 333, 80 N.W.2d 67 (1956). There, de novo review of the dismissal of a public employee was held unconstitutional on the ground that such review was a nonjudicial function, despite the fact that the dismissal was sufficiently judicial to support review by certiorari: [T]he act of removing an employee of the fire department for cause is primarily administrative and, although judicial in a sense, is not an act of such a nature that it requires performance by the judicial branch of the government or permits an appeal thereto. Id. at 337, 80 N.W.2d at 70-71.