Court Opinion

ID: 9550998
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:46:27.588239+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:22:52.137139
License: Public Domain

BAKES, J.,
concurring specially:
I concur that the judgment of the trial court should be affirmed based on the decision of this Court in Lawless v. Davis, 98 Idaho 175, 560 P.2d 497 (1977). I also concur that no attorney fees should be awarded on this appeal. However, I think this case, even more clearly than Lawless, points out that the trebling of wages as provided in I.C. § 45-615(4) should be limited to those actions in which the director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Services represents a wage claimant. See dissenting opinion of Bakes, J., in Lawless v. Davis, supra. In my view, it is the trebling of the wage claim in this case which causes the unreasonable windfall and not the award of attorney fees. However, the Court has ruled otherwise in Lawless, and that decision is controlling in this case. Therefore, I concur in the action of the Court in affirming the judgment of the trial court and denying attorney fees on appeal.