Court Opinion

ID: 9629088
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:36:49.789213+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:33.019543
License: Public Domain

QUINN, Justice,
dissenting:
I dissent. In City of Colorado Springs v. State, 626 P.2d 1122 (Colo.1981), we held that the 1978 version of the Policemen’s and Firemen’s Pension Reform Act, ch. 98, 1978 Colo.Sess.Laws 446, constituted retrospective legislation in violation of Article XV, Section 12 of the Colorado Constitution. Although we found no constitutional infirmity in that portion of the statute requiring municipalities to pay the prospective annual current service costs of pension benefits attributable to active members, we nonetheless held that this constitutionally imposed municipal burden was not severa-ble from the unconstitutional component of the statute. We thus concluded:
“The legislature has treated the sever-ability question specifically in the final section of the Pension Reform Act, section 31-30-806, C.R.S.1973 (1977 Repl. Vol. 12) (1980 Supp.) as follows:
‘If any provision of this part 8 is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unconstitutional, the remaining provisions of this part 8 shall be deemed invalid, it being the intent of the general assembly that the provisions of this part 8 are so essentially and inseparably connected with and so dependent upon each other that each is incomplete and incapable of being executed independent of the others.’
The legislative intent could not be more free from doubt. Notwithstanding the intrinsic constitutionality of the requirement that municipalities bear prospective annual service costs of firemen’s pension funds, that requirement is invalid because expressly declared not to be sever-able from the unconstitutional mandate that municipalities pay unfunded accrued liabilities of such funds.” 626 P.2d at 1129-30.
It necessarily follows from oúr conclusion that the 1978 Act, including the non-vesting provision .at issue here, is invalid and incapable of execution in its entirety. As a general matter, a statute which is declared unconstitutional is treated as if it had never been passed. E.g., City and County of Denver v. McNichols, 129 Colo. 251, 260, 268 P.2d 1026, 1030 (1954); Coulter v. Board of County Commissioners, 9 Colo. 258, 267, 11 P. 199, 203-04 (1886). “[A]n unconstitutional act is not a law, and can neither confer a right or immunity nor operate to supersede any existing valid law.” Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway Co. v. Hackett, 228 U.S. 559, 566, 33 S.Ct. 581, 584, 57 L.Ed. 966 (1913);1 see generally, e.g., Ex parte Siebold, 100 U.S. 371, 25 L.Ed. 717 (1879); People v. Manuel, 94 I11.2d 242, 68 Ill.Dec. 506, 446 N.E.2d 240 (1983); Hunter v. School District, 97 Wis.2d 435, 293 N.W.2d 515 (1980).
Notwithstanding the invalidity of the entire 1978 Act, the majority nevertheless restores vitality to the Act’s nonvesting provision. By reason of our holding in *187City of Colorado Springs, however, that part of the Act ceased to have any legal existence or effect. The majority’s decision in this case not only contravenes the unambiguous intent of the legislature that any provision of the 1978 Act was to be deemed incapable of execution independently of any other provision but, more important, revives what previously had been declared to be a constitutionally inoperative law.
Because I believe the construction of the nonseverability clause adopted by this court in City of Colorado Springs was correct, I would reverse the trial court’s entry of summary judgment against the plaintiffs and remand the ease for further proceedings on the plaintiffs’ claim that the 1979 and 1981 Acts, which became effective on January 1,1980, and July 1, 1981, respectively, constitute impermissible retrospective legislation as applied to the plaintiffs’ asserted rights in local pension plans preexisting the 1979 and 1981 Acts and thus, according to the plaintiffs, violate Article I, Section 10(1) of the United States Constitution and Article II, Section 11 of the Colorado Constitution.
I am authorized to say that ERICKSON, C.J., and ROVIRA, J., join in this dissent.

. The United States Supreme Court has tempered this statement in Hackett by refusing to always treat a statute judicially determined to be unconstitutional as if it never existed. “The actual existence of a statute, prior to such a determination, is an operative fact and may have consequences which cannot justly be ignored." Dobbert v. Florida, 432 U.S. 282, 298, 97 S.Ct. 2290, 2300, 53 L.Ed.2d 344 (1977) (quoting Chicot County Drainage Dist. v. Baxter State Bank, 308 U.S. 371, 374, 60 S.Ct. 317, 318, 84 L.Ed. 329 (1940)). Thus, it might be appropriate for a court in some circumstances to fashion appropriate equitable relief for the purpose of relieving a hardship occasioned by detrimental action taken in reliance on a statute prior to its judicial invalidation. See, e.g., Lemon v. Kurtz-man, 411 U.S. 192, 93 S.Ct. 1463, 36 L.Ed.2d 151 (1973) (plurality opinion); City of Phoenix v. Kolodziejski, 399 U.S. 204, 90 S.Ct. 1990, 26 L.Ed.2d 523 (1970); Cipriano v. City of Houma, 395 U.S. 701, 89 S.Ct. 1897, 23 L.Ed.2d 647 (1969); Allen v. State Board of Elections, 393 U.S. 544, 89 S.Ct. 817, 22 L.Ed.2d 1 (1969). In the instant case, however, any such argument relating to detrimental action that might have been taken by the defendants involves an issue of fact which could not have been resolved by a judgment on the pleadings. •