Court Opinion

ID: 9686485
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 15:51:00.256519+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:19.294901
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(concurring specially).
Public policy, essentially, forbids the enforcement of this contract. The entire purpose of the statute, in question, as amended, is to protect the public. See Bak v. Jones County, 87 S.D. 468, 210 N.W.2d 65 (1973); Fonder v. City of Sioux Falls, 76 S.D. 31, 71 N.W.2d 618 (1955); 10 E. McQuillin, The Law of Municipal Corporations, § 29.29 (1981).
This takes us to a gnawing, aching question of conscience. Should the City of Sioux Falls reap an equipment windfall? We must look at the pleadings to answer this question as well as some past precedent in this Court. When a pleader at law sets forth his complaint in a declaratory judgment action, what is he asking for? The pleadings must be scanned. A pleader may plead in law or in equity or both. A celebrated case in this Court, Orr v. Kneip, 287 N.W.2d 480, 485 (S.D.1979), instructs us: “It is generally recognized ... that declaratory judgment actions are neutral and may involve either equitable claims or legal claims or both. The court must look to the pleadings as a whole and the relief requested to determine the character of the claim.” (Citations omitted.)
As one reviews the pleader’s conceptualization in this case, no equitable relief is prayed for; thus, under this set of pleadings, the aching and gnawing must abate under stare decisis.
Restitution, as suggested by Justice Sabers’ writing, is certainly not unheard of nor unprecedented in the law. See G. Douthwaite, Attorney’s Guide to Restitution, § 10.11 (1977); McQuillin, supra §§ 29.127, 29.131. Again, the problem instantly is that no such plea for restitution was made below. As restitution is recognized under some circumstances, the statement in the majority opinion “[contractors who do business with public entities do so at their peril” is very inflexible; there can be, as Paul Harvey informs us, “the rest of the story.” ■